Legacy of Kain 6: Restoration of Nosgoth
by Kojiokida2
Summary: The Elder God has been defeated but not destroyed. Armed with the powerful Reaver Kain travels to strange places to seek his destiny. Following behind him, trying to make sense of his own life is the Former Sarafan Ewoden. The story is Finished.
1. Chapter 1: Kain

KAIN

Chapter 1: Avernus Cathedral and the Hylden dimension

* * *

The glittering surfaces of the Sarafan armour could be seen from the ground, although attention was often drawn more by the fluttering banner of the order above the spires. With the motivation and moral of the men slowly slipping, this city was one of the last few havens for those who simply couldn't abandon their cause, for fanatical devotion or more financial reasons. After the slaughter of the circle at the hands of Vorador and the destruction of their best inquisitors by a demon, the order was slowly beginning to slip away. Rich merchants were less inquilines to do business with them now that it was commonplace knowledge the Order had failed. Without the backing of the rich kings of the east, particularly Willendorf, they were coming an ignored organisation. 

Any knight patrolling the battlements who noticed the unusual number of bats in the air would have passed it off as night animals returning to their slumber in the Cathedral bell towers. The bats regrouped around the back of a spire and then came together, melding into a physical shape of a large, muscular man with a red drape over his shoulder and a long broadsword strapped across his back. **_Man_**, being only a descriptive word.

His claws sinking into the masonry, another set of talons swung around, sinking into the neck of a Knight just around the corner, silencing him before he could cry out. Kain tossed the Sarafan over his shoulder and watched as his form flew towards the ground, before he let go of the side of the Cathedral and dropped down to a battlement. As swift as a shadow, and before it was discovered that one of their number had fallen off the side of the building, the vampire flew along and inside a wooden door that lead into a separate room where some of the Priests went to change into their robes. Selves lined the walls, with many religious artefacts placed upon them. There were two doors leading out of here, one on the far side wall and the other to the left.

Crucifixes, white robes and a sword made out of silver used simply in ceremony, upon closer inspection is wasn't even sharp. What made humans believe that such trinkets actually worked? A crucifix? Two pieces of wood nailed together? How the hell was that supposed to stop them? Kain remembered one desperate villager that held one up to his son Dumah, who yawned, batted it aside and proceeded to tear him limb from limb.

Having already fed today, Kain saw no specific need to butcher Sarafan like he often did. That would alert the worshippers in the caverns below to his presence and the Hylden could very well seal their end of the porthole off. This errand would have to be done stealthily. Hearing footsteps coming from beyond a door at the far end of the room, Kain turned into a fine mist, becoming nearly completely invisible. Concealing himself just in a corner where his presence, in this tangible state, would not draw attention; the vampire stood stock still as an old man and a Sarafan Knight, the younger clad in a complete set of armour walked into the room arguing. The old man had a thin white heard and so many wrinkles it was hard to distinguish his facial characteristics.

"Look, I appreciate your position, but we just can't afford it any more." The older one argued, continuing their conversation as he stared to remove his white robe, his ordinary clothes underneath.

"This is treason old man." The knight said with a distinct hint of anger and disgust in his voice.

"We don't have enough room or food to accommodate five hundred soldiers." The priest snapped back, matching the knight's tone of voice despite his age.

"We can stay in the city, and as for food simply take it from the peasants."

"Famine has ravaged the land this year, if we take the food required to feed your men, half the population of this city will not survive the winter." The exited through the door on the left hand side of the room, the knight adding before they left…

"So what?"

* * *

Avernus Cathedral. I did not have too many found memories of this place. It was here I first discovered the Soul Reaver and fought one of the circle of nine during my misdirected quest, the guardian of Dimension; Azimuth the planer. She had raised all manner of demons in her madness, besetting the city and it's human populace in a mass slaughter. 

I was grateful that it was unlikely I would have such difficultly here. Azimuth had not yet been born. Below this Cathedral were a set of ancient catacombs, within which I hoped to find the one thing that eluded me. A way to enter the realm that the ancients banished the Hylden into.

I had to be careful however. Without Meobius, the Elder God could no longer peer into time. But the Hylden on the other had could traverse the time stream any moment they wished. How they did so eluded me. I knew they were not aware of my presence here, or I would have a multitude of demons blocking my path by now.

I was severely annoyed at having to creep around Sarafan instead of battling straight through them, as was my natural instincts. But if blood was spilt in excessive amounts now, the Sarafan would lock this Cathedral down and the Hylden would instantly know where I was. So I curbed my hunger for violence…for now.

It took some careful inspection, but eventually I found my way down into the catacombs from behind the alter. I waited for about ten minutes, watching some of the acolyte monks go in and out when they thought the Sarafan guards wasn't looking.

The tunnels below Avernus were a maze, the rotting stench of death filling them to the brim, making even me shudder involuntarily as I entered. It seemed to stink even more in this earlier period than it did in the future.

Sticking to the shadows, and remembering the layout from my last trip here, I followed the tunnels down into the belly of the earth. My intuition, as usual, were correct. The cult had only just been founded, and the dark pit which was to hold their god was still under construction. A thick multitude of scaffolding descending up and down the entire chamber.

Azimuth had not yet transported my deformed son, Turel; to this period in history. I choose not to wait around until she did.

Just as I was preparing to explore, I froze, spotting another familiar figure from my past. Directing the construction of the chambers was my first benefactor, the one who had turned me into a vampire in the first place. Mortanious, the Necromancer. A pale skinned, dark haired man. At least as tall as me, and clad in red robs that trailed down behind him. His chest protected by a plate of bones it seemed. He looked different, but I knew it was him, even if he was to make some drastic fashion changes later on. As tempting as stopping for a chat was, I turned away from this gaze into the past and slid down to the side to the temporal empty pit.

It was here that I had emerged from the Hylden dimension first, having fought past a multitude of demons to get here. In the not too distant future, it had been full of rotting bodies. The leftovers of my…**_sons_**…meals. Now it was empty, so I began to ponder for a moment where that smell was coming from.

I decided against letting myself get distracted by little details, as I could not be sure how long the cult members would leave this place unguarded.

"Ah…" I began to myself, realizing that I overlooked one slight detail. I had absolutely no idea how to open the gateway. I had managed to escape that realm, so it stood to reason I should be able to enter it. However, I had neglected to note anything of interest the last time.

The Reaver buzzed and instinctively I drew it, examining the blade as it began to glow with the spirit energy it had absorbed that fateful night. For a brief moment, I could swear that in the hilt's empty eye sockets I could see familiarity. "Raziel…" I began, holding it up closer to my face. A steady glow began emanating in the eyes in response.

I could not tell if it was just coincidence, or that the firstborn's soul was still very much sentient inside the blade. Either way, the sword tugged itself towards the centre of the pit, dragging me alone behind it. Like a key fitting into a slot, the Reaver flew into the air before sinking into the ground, slowly turning in some strange stone device buried just below the soil. Eventually, I took hold of the hilt and wrenched it free. But just before I did, a wild spark emanated in the air just ahead, spiralling around and around in a bright green vortex. It took a few minutes to stabilise, but after it did it looked large enough for me to simply walk through it.

I had done some research in the ruins of the vampires before coming here. While the Pillars, the lock that held the Hylden in that dimension to the south west; it was **_here_** that the banishment actually took place. Buried underneath the Cathedral was a set of complex vampiric technology, used to literally rip the presence of the Hylden from the world.

"Hell have no fury." I stated quietly to myself with a little smile, before sheathing my sword across my back again and marching straight towards this doorway. I was instantly reminded of Janos Audron during my final battle with the Sarafan lord. Still week, Janos attacked the leader of the Sarafan; hoping to buy me enough time to retrieve the Soul Reaver. His effort was rewarded, but in the process, the Sarafan lord cast him down into that dark realm.

As I reached the vortex edge, I was literally ripped off my feet and sucked into it's centre, hurled down a narrow tunnel of swirling green and black light. An intense nausea instantly came over me, that had nothing to do with the spinning environment around me. The trip could have lasted any amount of time, but at some point it ended and I landed roughly on my feet.

* * *

And so I arrived at that place of banishment the Hylden called home. One look at it, and I could see exactly why they were so desperate to escape. It was a bleak, desolate place with a sickly green sky, thin white mist like cloud hanging in the air. Physically speaking, it was very much like Nosgoth. Gravity still held me to the floor, there was still a sky above my head and from the ridge I had emerged on, I could see blinking green lights in the distance. Presumably a Hylden settlement. Looking around, I could see I had emerged on the side of a mountain range stretching far beyond my own sight. Down below, I couldn't actually see a bottom. Only a thick blanket of green cloud whiting maybe a short leap of a very long drop. 

I reminded myself that I could not spend unlimited amounts of time here. Prolonged exposure to this realm warped ones physical and mental state. Once the Hylden themselves had been fair of form and logical thinkers. Now they were depraved, insane monsters. I had no intention of becoming like that. Well…not more so than I already was.

As it was the only distinct thing around here in this strange, unnerving place; I decided to head to the settlement. Dissipating into bats, I carried myself across the stretch of misty wasteland towards it. From above, I could see a warped wilderness filled with demons, some hunting each other. Giant insect like monsters wielding lighting were picking off smaller ones, devouring them whole.

Others were towering and goat-like with blood red fur and they seemed to rein unchallenged, apart from the giant black ones that burned everything that came before them.

These creatures were native to this realm and the Hylden obviously trained them to be hound dogs of sorts, with the express purpose of sinking their talons and fangs into **_my_** flesh.

Arriving at the settlement, I found the architecture just as I remembered it from my days in Meridian. Stone work mixed with metal, green lines of energy running between it. Glyph energy, used by the second Sarafan order to power all of their capital city. This stuff, if used in the right way, was not vampire friendly. I was more than likely to encounter the odd Ward gate here as well.

Sliding in my mist form between two large stretches of metal, I discovered that this settlement was actually the start of a very large, industrialized city. Large enough to put even Meridian to shame. it's expanse never seemed to end. From the tops of buildings, I could see Hylden down in the streets. All busy, working, guarding and performing other duties unknown to me. It seemed, despite their ever present insanity they had managed to maintain a working society. I could tell by the looks on their warped faces however, that they were far from enjoying themselves here.

Mechanical constructs which I learned were called…**_robots_**…patrolled the city itself. They were simply triangular devices with side arms that spat some sort of Hylden magic. They acted on their own, serving as a kind of peace keeping force. At the moment, they all seemed to be heading to one place. A large towering structure just in the distance. Arched like vultures talons, with thick green lines running through it. I had seen similar constructions at the hidden city; a towering city I explored during my fledgling youth. This one however, dwarfed all others I had seen.

I saw opportunity knocking.

If the Cure for vampirism was anywhere, then it had to be there. Sliding down to the ground, I grabbed some unfortunate Hylden and dragged him back into the shadows before he could so much as gasp. Sating my hunger on his blood, I dumped the drained body in a quiet corner where I estimated none of his kind would find him for a good few hours.

The Reaver buzzed, hungry and irritated at a missed meal.

"The next one, I promise." It replied to it, tapping it's hilt before vanishing to explore more of this strange place.


	2. Chapter 2: Ewoden

(I do not own LOK etc.)

**EWODEN**

Chapter 2: Vorador's mansion

* * *

The gate of the mansion grounds swung open with a rusty screeching that the former Sarafan knew for certain would alert every vampire here to his presence. Some here knew him, others did not. It was those 'others' he was concerned about, driving a pike through him for being dressed in Sarafan armour. Situated in the black forest, far north west of the pillars, the mansion lay undisturbed by thieves. Despite the wealth on display without guards. No thief however was stupid enough to steal from Vorador. A vampire known for vicious sadistic blood shed across the length of Nosgoth. 

The courtyard was empty, as Ewoden had expected it to be. It was still light outside and not many vampires could venture out; even in the evenings. Quickly the human removed his helmet for those he was sure were watching him, so that his features could be recognised. His furs were still covered in snow, and his boots in the fresh mud in the marshland surrounding the mansion. Leaving a thick trail of footprints, he walked right up to the front door that stood on a small platform with a set of curving stairs leading up to it.

The door looked locked at first glance, but suddenly and without explanation, the key turned itself in the lock and the door creaked open with an ominous groaning.

There was no one there to great him in the lavishly decorated hallway, save for a stone statue of Vorador himself that stood intimidating the guests that strode through the door. It was very effective. It wasn't Vorador in person, but it made the average person jump in surprise. The hall itself had a very tall ceiling and a soft red carpet running down it. A long collection of chandelles, thick with spiders webs hung from the ceiling, each crystal lit with a scented candle.

Leaving his furs on a chair nearby, Ewoden paused to removed his boots. It might have seemed mundane and pointless, but this was the house of Vorador. One was always wise to respect his abode. Out of the backpack over his shoulders, the former Sarafan extracted a fresh pair of leather boots and with those now on his feet, he left most of his belongs at the door and continued down the hallway towards the main hall. He had left the Axes Havoc and Malice, a gift from the Werewolf Seroli Forger Edward, strapped in an **'X' **across his back. They would do much in keeping away anything that might get ideas.

"I know you're there." Ewoden stated loudly striding into the main hall itself, a large chamber with another set of curving stairs leading up to a second level. Six stone pillars stood in a rectangle around the room holding up the painstakingly curved ceiling. The shadows around the room seemed to whisper to each other in response, but not quietly enough for the former Sarafan not to hear it. Sighing he held his hand up and uttered the words of spell Janos had taught him. A collection of vampiric ruins gathering around him as the magic began working.

This caused magical light to radiate away from his palm, bathing the entire room in a soft white glow, revealing several startled fledgling vampires. The light was magical and could not possibly hurt them, but they didn't seem to know that. They screeched and dived for any more darkness they could find, but finding none, turned to face him with terrified looks on their faces. Pitting them, Ewoden called off the spell and the light faded. "Is you're master in?" He asked before they had a chance to react.

"The master resides in his private chamber." One of them began, still trembling. Having been here before, Ewoden knew where that was. Before he could even say thank you however, something grabbed him from behind, pilling his arms to his sides in bear hug. Thinking it was an attack, the former Sarafan looked ready to ignite a lightning spell before a familiar set of blonde hair brushed past his ear, a set of soft lips pressed against his cheek.

With that distract, the vampires disappeared and Ewoden was left alone with the one behind him. A brief smiled made it's way to his face.

"Bastard." She whispered to him, her hands all over his chest, eager fingers trying to work their way through the gaps in his armour. "You complete and utter bastard." He had missed her, that was undeniable.

She was a vampire, he was human. Most people would see that reason enough for them to be at each others throats. Ewoden however wasn't like most people. He had seen that vampires were just people with a curse. They still left anger, pain, sorrow and love like everyone else. It was the lies spread by the Sarafan that demonised them. "Leaving me alone, you bad boy." She added playfully, leaning forward just enough so he could see her pure black eyes. "I'll have to pay you back for that." Ewoden couldn't help blushing.

Vorador's estate stretched over a good deal of swamp land, a high wall circling the entire place. The main building itself had several bedrooms for his brides, a dozen pantries, basement, greenhouse and a long garden path leading down to a large crypt at the back; which according to his lesser servants, he had been lately spending a lot of time in. In fact, he seemed to have moved into there altogether.

The door to the crypt had been sealed shut by the time Ewoden reached it. Clearly Vorador did not want to be disturbed. The former Sarafan, while he respected the ancient Vampire did not have the time to wait around. Hesitating only briefly, he began to push the large stone door aside.

Before he'd even gotten it halfway open, Sally put her hand on his shoulder.

"He's not been in the best of moods." She told him. That set the scene for him well enough. Vorador may not be a raging beast like the Order would have everyone believe, however he was prone to outbursts of destructive anger. Pausing only for a moment, he pushed it aside completely.

Instantly the torches inside the chamber beyond lit up, forced to burn by some magic Vorador had installed upon the place. The room was a round with a curved ceiling with a tall stone chair placed at the far end, to the right of which was a set of stone stairs that curved downwards into another chamber below this one. There was a strong smell of incense in the air, like a thousand scented candles all burning at once.

Ewoden had half expected to find the vampire himself standing there to greet him; but instead all he was greeted with was am unnerving silence.

"Are you sure he's in here?" He asked Sally over his back. The female vampire nodded, a little puzzled by her masters absence herself.

"We saw him go in." She replied, stepping back the former Sarafan to look at the carvings on the walls and roof. All strange symbols the like of which were not common in Nosgoth.

Ewoden went over and inspected the stairs leading downwards and found two sets curving off in different directions; but both seemed to lead to the same place. A second chamber directly below the first. As the two of them descended, neither of them caught glance of Vorador. But that didn't mean he wasn't here. Once at the bottom of the stairs, they approached another doorway leading to the second chamber.

Looking inside, they saw the entire room was filled with candles; literally hundreds of them. There were placed upon the floors, tables and even a large stone alter directly in the centre. But it was not the candles there at once drew there attention.

It was the inanimate body that shared the alter with them. Vorador had retrieved the body of Janos Audron from his collapsed aerie and laid it out here. His arms were crossed over the gaping wound in his chest, where five of the best Sarafan inquisitors had torn out his heart. He looked as noble and gentle as when Ewoden first met him. At once his discontent and contempt for the Sarafan order reborn in a fiery blast. Sally found that she could not enter the room and even as she tried, a profound sense of sadness and despair washed over her.

"Our father deserves to be remembered as a holy man." A voice from the darkness stated as Vorador stepped out from the shadows behind them. He was good at hiding his emotions, but Ewoden could see that a twinge of powerful anguish in his yellow eyes. "Not as the monster the Sarafan made him out to be." No one said anything for a moment. Their gaze kept locked on the still form of Janos Audron. The last of the ancients, the lone survivor after so many of his kind committed suicide, unable to bear their curse.

Finally, Vorador sighed and began the walk back up towards the chamber above, the two others quickly following. "And what brings the traitor to the Sarafan order back here?" Vorador asked, giving Ewoden a side glance as they reached the above room.

"I need your help to locate somebody." The human replied, unsure exactly of how to state his new quest without being thought a madman. "Can you help me?" Vorador hummed to himself, looking thoughtful.

"Depends who it is." Was his eventual reply once they got back to the mansion itself, a large collection of servants already there to greet their master.

"One referred to as, the Scion of Balance." Vorador stopped in mid stride and stared directly at him with wide questioning eyes.

"I see." He replied flatly after a while. Silently, he lead them to one of his private studies; a small room at the back of the house, warmly lit by the glow from a fire place with a large collection of books stacked up on a book shelf. Sally did not enter with them. Servants could only enter Vorador's chambers unless told to. The ancient vampire shut to the door after him, indicating to his servants that he did not want to be disturbed. "The Scion of Balance…" He repeated, taking up a seat next to the fire and motioning for Ewoden to do the same in another chair. "Was a being my master talked about often. The one destined to free the vampires from their ancient curse. The one for whom the Reaver Blade was forged." It was about then that Ewoden realized he had heard mention of this Reaver Blade but had never actually seen it. "I can not find him young man, because he dose not exist. He is merely a character in folk lore created by a dying race to give themselves hope."

"The Seroli see him quite differently." Ewoden stated. Vorador paused and looked directly at him with sharp eyes.

"Exactly who have you been talking to?" He asked after a moment. Ewoden relented the tale of his encounter with the Were-wolf, who was in actuality one of the Seroli; master smiths who crafted the finest weapons in Nosgoth. It was he who had given him the axes Havoc and Malice and told him of the true purpose of the Scion of Balance; neither a saviour of one race; but rather a liberator of all. Vorador sat through it all with a sceptical glance on his face. "You tell an interesting story. I had thought my old kin extinct." He said after a brief moment of silence. "I was once Seroli, before the shadow of the wolf was passed to them. I would have shared their curse had I not been chosen to be Janos' Apprentice before hand." He was silent, ancient memories passing before his eyes. "But even if they told you this story, I doubt very much the tales authenticity." He could see in the former Sarafan's eyes a determined resolve. Ewoden was steadfast in this quest. "But very well, if you insist I believe I might be able to help you."

Later that night, the ancient vampire led Ewoden through his mansion to a room near the attic. It was a display room. A lot of the artefacts the vampires had recovered over the centuries ended up here. All were put on display in glass boxes, a thin lay of dust covering them all. Despite the grand collection, it seemed Vorador had little interest in it all.

Standing at the back of the long room was a set of black armour, made up of a mixture of chain mail and plates over the chest, arms and legs. It was expertly carved, even curve in the design done with extreme precision, but just by looking at it Ewoden could feel waves of power radiating away from it like ripples on a pond.

"This is the Wraith armour." Vorador began, lifting it piece by piece out of his display case. "Created for use by the Scion of Balance before the exact parameters of the vision were discovered. One the full vision was seen, it was concluded that this armour would interfere with destiny and was discarded. It remains however, attached to the Scion." He handed it all, piece by piece to the former Sarafan. "If he indeed dose exist, then this armour should lead you to him."


	3. Chapter 3: Kain

KAIN

CHAPTER 3: The Hylden Dimension

* * *

The Dimension the vampire ancients banished the Hylden to eons ago lived up to my expectations. The place was filled with putrefying air I could hardly breath. The air itself was a sickly pale green that even turned my stomach to look at it and I had seen the bleached red skies my Empire would bring about with it's pollution. This very dimension had driven the Hylden's entire race insane and warped their physical forms to ugly monstrosities. This form of imprisonment was even worse than the conditions I had observed in the Eternal Prison. 

So far I had remained undetected by the Hylden in their city. Although I knew that would not last long. Sooner of later one of them was going to catch a glimpse of me and the alarm would be raised.

Hiding around a corner at the base of the towering structure that stood in the centre of the settlement, I paused to watch those on guard. Two large incest like demons stood at the gate like entrance, both at least twice my size with a pair of serrated claws on each arm; a round mouth filled with dagger like teeth. Obviously while trapped here, the Hylden occupying themselves by breeding the different demons for alternating duties.

Even though I could assaulting them directly was out of the question. Apart from the demons, several warrior Hylden stood to attention in a sort of gatehouse at the side. One of them would raise the alarm before I could kill them and I would never get in and I had to. The cure for the curse surely lay within.

Briefly I considered using my mist form to pass unseen, but quickly ruled that out. Their technology would detect me. I'd seen it happen before. The Hylden had spent eons perfecting ways of hunting and killing vampires, I would do best not to forget that.

The Reaver on my back buzzed wildly, sensing my dilemma. Taking hold of the hilt I studying the blade for a moment. There was no mistake now, the captured spirit within was trying to get my attention.

"What are you trying to tell me Raziel?" I asked quietly. In a flash a surge of memory leap from the sword directly into my head and saw my first born again; still in his ruined wraith form, use his wraith blade to become hidden from his enemies. He did this by evoking it's power of invisibility. Then as quickly as it had come, the memory vanished.

It was clear Raziel's spirit was trying to tell me how to use the same trick, the only question was what it I do to start? As if I had known all along, my instincts told my to direct the blade down towards a shadow behind me. I did so, and it was like the Reaver ate the darkness and took it upon itself. The shadow shot up the blade and engulfed my, rendering my body completely invisible. It seems that when Raziel healed my body before being taken by the sword; he passed on knowledge and abilities that he had had. Raziel had left my more than I had originally thought. A gift too precious not to use.

Clad in nothingness I crept along the outside edge of a wall towards the entrance. Neither demon on guard moved, their kept their gaze locked towards, frozen like statue. The Hylden around the gatehouse didn't notice me either, their kept on talking to edge other in some tongue I did not understand. Briefly I wondered what the Hylden had looked like before their imprisonment. I doubted their eyes glowed green naturally, but rather as an effect from over exposure to this realm. Remembering the clock was ticking before I became like them, I quickened my pace and soon as clear of the gate entrance and stood facing a long flight of stairs up towards the interior of the structure.

As I began my climn, I could see that this entire place was powered by Glyph energy; energy that would be used one day to make the city of Meridian a very unfriendly place for vampires. I was lucky I had not encountered any ward gates. Apparently, they did not anticipate one of my kind making it into their realm. Still, I remained alert for anything unexpected. The Hylden were quite often unpredictable.

The architecture of the building was very much like those I had seen in Meridian. A blending of metal and flesh , all designed with god like precision. Like a spiders web vines lanced up the side of walls and pillars and from somewhere deep inside I could feel a distant thumping like a heart. Searching the rooms one by one, I began to grow impatient upon finding empty chamber after empty chamber. Once did I encounter a Hylden inside the structure itself, a lone warrior on patrol.

He was quickly neutralized as I grabbed him out of the darkness and breaking his neck, draining him dry before quickly I stuffed his body behind a corner and carried on.

"Impossible." A voice began and quickly I faded into invisibility. From around a corner a pair of Hylden came, one of them a warrior and the other a sorcerer wearing a purple robe with black runes down the side. Both of them had glowing bright green eyes. "No vampire could travel here, and why would it want to?" I held my breath as they passed by. Oblivious to my presence.

"I don't know." The other admitted. "They just found a few bodies down in the city, blood drained and everything." Their voices grew distant as they carried. So my first victims here had been discovered. Security around here was only going to grow as time passed.

Eventually I made my way to one of the high levels. This one was a wide open space that served as some sort of storage area with a few demons with goat like horns standing guard around the outside. A large number of metal crates with strange symbols written on their sides lay scattered here and there. A large metal door stood between me and another chamber on the far side, a faint green ring around it's outer edge marking the presence a Ward barrier. Strangely enough though, the barrier was on the inside of the door with a control panel on the outside. That barrier was not to keep vampires out, but rather to keep one in.

This might be a lead to the cures locations. The only problem was that the control panel was being monitored by a Hylden and if I killed it, the demons here would converge on me.

Ducking behind a large metal crate, I paused again to consider my options. Fighting all those demons at once was out of the question, so I had to get that Hylden away quietly. Looking back around the edge, I saw the his exact location and I extended a claw, my telekinetic powers lancing around across the chamber to a small stone on the floor some distance away. With my mind I picked it up and tossed it against the wall, making a echoed sound. The Hylden grunted and looked up from his work and I could see the extent of the damage the exposure to this world had had on it's face. The flesh had nearly completely disappeared and for a moment I was certainly I was staring at a skull.

He crossed the room to examine the area and as soon as he had disappeared around a large crate, came my chance. Still under invisibility , I silently crossed the chamber to the control panel and flipped a large switch on it's left hand side. The metal door grunted quietly as broke in two, each half sliding to one side with a steam like hissing.

I'd been right, there was a Ward gate inside. Beyond it was a small room with an arched ceiling and flat metal floor; dimly lit by a single green light above. I seemed to be made completely out of metal and was completely featureless, apart from a huddled mass at the far end, hidden in a shadow so I couldn't make out it's exact features. I could hear breathing come from it so I gathered that this was the prisoner the Ward Gate was keeping in. From it's scent, I could tell it was vampiric.

If I wanted to get in there, I would have to shut down the Gate and I saw no obvious level for it's deactivation here.

"Vampire!" Came a screech and I shot around, the Soul Reaver already in my hand. The Hylden had returned from it's patrol and it's eyes blared bright green. It was then that I noticed my invisibility had worn off. In response, the four demons around the room looked up and as soon as they had me in their sight came charging, their eyes burning with fire.

I slashed the Hylden across the stomach with my blade, killing it instantly before turning and casting a telekinetic blast at the closet demon, momentarily stunning it before sweeping forward with a stab, impaling the tip of the blade through it's stomach, the sword draining both it's blood and whatever collection of violent thoughts it called a soul. In my fledgling youth, I had had trouble dealing with these monsters, but now my strength and agility was equal to theirs. And having a powerful sword didn't hurt either.

Retracting my blade and letting the monster fall backwards, I back flipped over a slash from another before landing on it's head. Again the blade entered another victim, driving itself directly through the neck, breaking it instantly.

The other two reared their heads back and fired a blast of fire from their mouths before the other one had even fallen, engulfing the giant in flames. Sliding backwards into mist form, the fires past right through my body and I was left undamaged. Another came charring at me, claws out stretched. Spinning by entire body around, I slashed it across the back of it's legs and it toppled over, crashing to the ground.

Before it could even attempt to rise I was driving the Reaver directly through it's head, a few strands of brain wrenching out when he removed the blade. The final demon was jet black and sufficiently larger than the others. It roared before sending more fire my way. Diverting it's path with a telekinetic blast, I came in close and brought the tip of the sword across it's throat, leaving a spray of blood in the air as it toppled backwards. Screeching It actually picked itself back up, before grabbing my torso and flinging my violently against the side of the wall. Rebounding off the side, I cam back with a slash, cleaving a good deal of flesh from it's left arm. With it's right it took hold of one of my legs while I was still in mid air and slammed me down into the ground.

Taking hold of the Reaver, I swung the blade around and sank it's blade directly into the side of its' stomach; but even that seemed only to annoy it. Then, like a burst of sunlight, fire danced along the length of the sword, seeing the flesh around the wound before consuming the entire demon's body in an inferno, reducing it to a charged skeleton in moments.

Again I saw Raziel, in battle carving it's way through Sarafan warrior armed with a fiery version of the Soul Reaver lancing down his arm. It seems Raziel's gift to me was indeed more extensive than I had realized. It stood to reason that as Raziel could engage the elemental versions of the Reaver, now so could I. Darkness and Fire had already shown themselves. Who knows what, given time, I might have at my disposal.

Sheathing the Reaver across my back, I realized that my time was nearly up. This carnage would be detected soon as I was no closer to discovering the cure yet. I hoped the prisoner inside this cell could tell me more. Looking up, I traced the green line with my eyes as it lead away from the doorway, across the wall and finally through a small hole in the floor; but not until it passed through a conduit that looked like a brass pipe.

I pointed my hand towards it and with one sharp tug, my telekinesis tore it out from the wall, disturbing the line. The Ward gate buzzed widely before dissipating with a loud reluctant hiss. Surprisingly, the prisoner inside did not move, it simply lay there like some puppet with cut strings. Approaching it, I made out more details and I was astonished to find it was an Ancient Vampire. Blue skin and raven black wings, a mess of untidy black and silver hair on it's head. It was dressed in a few simply grey rags, barely covering itself. It was visibly shivering, clearly deprived of sustenance for some time.

It didn't even resist as I reached over and turned it over to see it's face. A face I had seen before.

"Janos…" It was indeed the Ancient Vampire. The last of their kind, father of the present bloodline. During my crusade to recapture the Reaver from the Sarafan Lord, Audron had confronted the Hylden Leader himself and in his weakened state was cast straight into their dimension. His sacrifice had bought me just enough time to retrieve the sword. But this made no sense. I had entered the Demon Realm during the era before the corruption of the Pillars. Janos had been cast down eons afterwards.

Had the Hylden some time streaming device? Or maybe they could enter any period of history through this dimension itself? Did time matter here?

That made relative sense. If they could traverse the time stream at will from this place then they could easily have outwitted Moebius as they did, using the vampire ancient as a vessel to open the Hylden Gate. A porthole my younger self destroyed

Janos had been here for some time, at least a hundred years or so. I could see the corruption of this realm marching on his body. His face was thinner than before as a thin trail of orange lined each feather of his wings. Slowly he opened his eyes and I could see the gold in them was beginning to die, a taint of green slowly becoming dominant.

"Kain…."


	4. Chapter 4: Ewoden

(I do not own LoK)

EWODEN

CHAPTER 4: Vorador's mansion

* * *

The Wraith Armour had been intended for Someone with a great deal more muscle mass than the former Sarafan, but after a good deal of effort it was made to fit. The armour was jet black and smooth, icy cold to the touch, hardly anything like the rough, fur lined armour handed to him by the Order. Underneath the large metal plates was a dark chain mail as black as the armour itself.

On the outer side of each leg was a series of leather straps, all of which were holding the petal plates to his leg.

"The Armour was made from a Wraith Forge, making it over twice as durable as regular Iron." Vorador explained as Ewoden tested it's flexibility. "I must warn you though, it's defence comes with a price." The human looked up sceptically. "It's enchantments divides the damage done to you by aggressors between your physical health and that of you Mana reserves. Those are depleted however, it will tax your very soul."

"My soul?" Ewoden asked.

"Have you ever seen what happens to those who have their soul weakened?" The ancient vampire asked. Ewoden shook his head. "Their minds disappear in an instant and they are reduced to gibbering insanity. Believe me, that is a fate you do not which to meet." Ewoden hesitated, looking down at the armour; a faint mixture of horror and dread dawning on his face. "Avoid fights if you can, but if you have to battle; make the fights as short as possible." Ewoden knew that he needed this armour. If Vorador was right, it would lead him directly to the Scion of Balance. However, the notion of being drained of his very essence during a fight did not appeal to him very much.

"So… how do I…" He began, un sure of how to ask how to make it work without being made to look foolish.

"Did Janos teach you a translocation spell?" Vorador asked. The former Sarafan nodded. "The Armour had a small Mana reserve of it's own, connect yours with it and try to teleport."

"Where to?"

"That doesn't matter. As the Armour was intended for the Scion of Balance, it will interrupt the spell destination and take you to his immediate location." Ewoden hesitated, wondering for a moment if this was a good idea. "If indeed the Scion dose exist." Vorador began again with a grim smile. "What do you intend to do when and if you meet him?" The former Sarafan suddenly looked puzzled. If he was honest, he would admit that he hadn't thought that far ahead yet. Vorador paused, before a humoured smiled spread over his lips. "Perhaps you should think about that over the night."

Ewoden took his advice and turned to his rooms with the armour. It was incredibly late by the time he made it to his bed and even then he didn't go to sleep. Instead he lay there thinking. He had undertaken this quest rather spontaneously, without leaving time to think ahead. If the Armour worked, there was no going back and he had to have at least the rough outline of a plan before even attempting it. Whatever form a plan may take, he doubted it would be simple.

Then again Ewoden's life had never been simple. For most of his youth he had been a slave in the mines of Wilendorf, retrieving the precious materials from the ground then when he passed eighteen he was bought by the Time Streamer Moebius along with many other slaves to become part of the Sarafan order. At their stronghold, Ewoden had mastered many forms of weaponry including the Axe and the bow.

His heart had never been in their crusade through. He couldn't carry on killing vampires, not in good conscience. They looked too human for it.

So he deserted and escaped the order in a place called Avernus. There he was chased by a demon into the surrounding forest, before eventually killing the monster in the depths of the swamp. There he would have drowned in quicksand where it not for the aid of Vorador, who saved him from certain death.

Vorador introduced him to Sally, one of his servants. She had taken to Ewoden at once and he would be lying if he said he didn't return the affection. Perhaps it was love, perhaps it was only infatuation. Either way, the two of them were found of each other and Ewoden wasn't about to question her friendly company.

Vorador had taken the two of them to study magic and arcane science under his Sire, the infamous Janos Audron. There they stayed for many years, learning a few of the secrets of the Ancient Vampires. Ewoden's life with the ancient however were soon brought to an end when the Sarafan inquisitors stormed his retreat, used Lord Moebius' staff to disable him before their leader; Raziel carved out his heart.

It was this relic they retreated with and dubbed it, the Heart of Darkness.

His life with Janos had been the closet thing he had that had ever some to a home and the Sarafan tore it away from him. If there was even a fraction of hope that the Scion of Balance could put everything right again then Ewoden had to at least try and help.

His door creaked open a little. The former Sarafan looked up briefly but saw no one there. Only a faint pillar of light lancing through the crack in the doorway. Almost a moment later, he left something slid next to him, lying against his back on the other side of the bed. It was her, those black eyes seemed to glow brightly in the darkness. He did not protest her presence, if anything it was soothing.

As the sun began to peek over the tops of the trees, Ewoden reached out and closed the curtains magically before it's rays could fall upon her skin.

"I'm coming with you." Sally stated flatly, her tone leaving absolutely no room for any sort of argument. Ewoden made no attempt to either. In truth, he would most welcome her company. He didn't bother to point out that she didn't know what she was getting herself into; because he didn't either but he was still going; so there was little reason why she shouldn't. She was after all physically superior to him in many ways.

As if she was hesitant to continue, she looked away from him for a second; her dark eyes plain with indecision. After a moment of silence she looked back. "Do you know what the Whisper is Ewoden?" The former Sarafan hesitated. He had heard Vorador and Janos mention it briefly but had admittedly dismissed it as not important.

"Er, no." He admitted rather sheepishly. The female vampire smiled at him.

"It's a form of telepathy. It allows social groups of vampires to keep in touch over great distances. Traditionally it's something for kin alone." She traced a soft hand over his face. "But I'd like to share it you."

"Me?" The former Sarafan repeated looked confused. She nodded.

"As you are human, our link with be between the two of us only." Her smile widened, nearly making his heart bleed. "What do you say Sarafan Knight?" Ewoden actually found the idea tempting, but some part of him; perhaps the natural human fear of the unknown trembled. "Not scared are you?" She asked him coyly, a seductive smirk on her face.

He didn't have to answer. Slowly she laidher slender fingers on each on his forehead and began humming, a soft tune that instantly put into his head images of distant mountain tops; cold air lifting loose snowflakes into the ether, thin sunlight gently reflecting off canopies of white. Before he could question the origin of these images; it felt like something melted away and then there she was, inside him. No wait, as a apart of him. No longer separate. It was hard for Ewoden to put into words, but it felt like a bridge between them had suddenly just sprung into being. "That wasn't so bad was it?" She asked him, but not with her lips; a message sent directly from her mind into his. So new was it that he recoiled at the first touch.

Slowly his defences began to lessen and finally he began enjoying that new link. The former Sarafan had always been alone. He had had no friends or family in the slave mines, and little to no comradeship to speak of in the Order. Sally was the first person he had never had strong emotions for and through the Whisper, he couldn't help letting all those emotions slip through to her.

"You share this with all the vampires?" He asked out load as if to divert the discussion of their private conversation.

"Well, no." She admitted with a smirk. "We only use the Whisper to send messages, thought words; I pushed it a little further with you." He could sense what she meant by that. He could actually taste her emotions. It was almost like a powerful strong sauce with an after bite that burned slowly. "Not disappointed with it are you?"

Vorador was waiting for them both by the time they had gotten up inside the largest of the libraries, the one with a spectacular view of the towering Avernus Cathedral in the distance. A few of his servants had gathered on the upper balconies to watch, interested in what might occur here. They had all seen Vorador's trophies room but had had little excuse to see any of them in action.

The Ancient Vampire did not seen too surprised by the fact that Sally had chosen to accompany him. Nor the fact that she had decided to share the Whisper with him.

She had desperately wanted to go with him was Ewoden wandered aimlessly west through Nosgoth, but Vorador would not permit her. She could not withstand the light of day yet. She seemed to have taken some precautions at least with a thick cloak and hood. Still, he worried for her mental state. Ewoden was human and mortal, he could die in battle and if not then; then the slow decay of eons would render him a very old man while she remained young.

A good deal of supplies had been stuffed into Ewoden's bag as a new set of furs readied for him for use underneath the wraith armour. All of which were sitting at the foot of Vorador's seat next to a fire place.

"Whatever quest you embark on now I wish you the best of luck with." Was his near disapproving sentiment. "But, I'm afraid it is probably doomed to failure." Ewoden didn't answer. Instead he concentrated on equipping himself with first his furs and then the armour itself and finally the Two Axes Havoc and Malice strapped in an 'X' across his back. Sally took the bag, before pulling the hood back over her head. "If the armour even works." Vorador added, looking up briefly.

The teachings of Janos passed briefly through the former Sarafan's mind as he remembered how the Ancient had taught him a standard teleportation spell called Translocation. It was one of the techniques the vampires had employed heavily in their wars against the Hylden, allowing them to move great armies across large distances quickly. The Hylden had had their own means of transportation which were much more complex than theirs.

First, he reached into his reserve of Mana. Everyone had Mana, some more than others. It was life force energy in it's rawest form, which through mental discipline and training could be focused and controlled.

Extending the control of the spell to include the female vampire beside him, Ewoden connected his own magic with that he could feel within the Wraith Armour. A entrapped force of magic that hadn't been used for an eon and it awoke with a start, mingling with his own Mana; connected to him in a way that made him tingle involuntarily.

If Vorador was right, the next part would do itself. He paused to take a deep breath. After this point there was no going back. Not that he had anything else to do. He cast the spell with no emergence point and just as Vorador said, the armour did the rest. It took hold of the uncompleted spell and finished itself, the thick white mist of a Translocation spell clouding the library; engulfing the two of them; hiding them from eve the keen eyes of Vorador.

Once it had cleared, they were gone.


	5. Chapter 5: Kain

(I do not own LOK, etc.)

KAIN

Chapter 5: The Hylden Dimension

* * *

I had not anticipated finding the father of the vampiric bloodline here in the demon dimension, the prison of the Hylden race. True I had seen him thrown in here by the Sarafan lord during my rise to power, but that event was yet to take place in this timeline. Clearly, time meant something very different here as it did in Nosgoth. It had once been in my best interests to keep him dead so that the Hylden may not use his body to bring themselves into the world. Raziel however unintentionally thwarted my attempt and so Janos was brought back to life, used by the Hylden and then held captive inside a device deep underneath the city of Meridian. His very body used to feed their weapon, the foul colossal Mass. That is until my younger self freed him on my quest to defeat the Sarafan Lord.

Janos looked up at me weekly from the floor of his cell, his golden eyes slowly being tainted green by over exposure to this realm. Eons of imprisonment had driven the Hylden insane and warped them beyond physical recognition. I could only imagine what it might do to a vampire.

"I know it's you Kain. Your eyes have remained the same but the rest of you has dramatically changed." He began, taking note of my green skin and the set of horns running along my hair line. All gifts from my evolution into an Ancient.

"And you are beginning to." I told him, helping him up. He was very week so I had to let him rest on my shoulder. "You should not linger in this place any longer than you have."

"Indeed." Janos coughed. His blue skin was pale, showing that he had fed very little. "My captors tell me that madness is the last thing that takes hold. Physical deformity comes first." He looked down sadly at his feathers, each of them lined with an orange streak. It seems I had reached him just in time.

"Rest easy. Once my business here is done I will help you escape from this place." It was clear he needed to hear something comforting, that and badly needed nourishment. "Here." I removed one of my gauntlets and used a talon on the other hand to slice a cut down my arm, freeing a great deal of my blood. I had fed quite well on Hylden and had plenty to spare.

He was reluctant to accept at first, but after a moment his need took over and he drank as much as he could before my wound healed itself. A vampire, especially one that had been alive for as long as I have, carried with him far more potent blood than that of Mortals. It was only a sense of brotherhood and comradeship that kept vampires from attacking each other for their own blood. I could almost see the difference in his facial features as my blood got to work, healing whatever damage it could inside his body.

"What are you doing in this place Kain? What possible crusade brought you this deep into hell?" He asked, the blood giving him the strength to stand rather unsteadily on his own two feet.

"Necessity." I replied flatly. "I require something important and I suspect the Hylden have it." Janos managed a small laugh as he leaned against the wall of his cell.

"Ah, you seek the cure." My eyes widened.

"You know of it?"

"Of course." He replied. "The Hylden are accomplished and professional alchemists, they never create any curse or virus without making an antidote in case one of their number became infected by mistake." I felt a smirk part my lips.

"How fortunate." I began. Finally a lead, maybe this endeavour would not be as fruitless as I first imagined. "I don't suppose you know where it is?" The ancient shook his head.

"Only that is lies within this settlement. My jailors would show me it often, just to show me how close to I could come to a cure." I paused, trying to think up several new strategies at once.

"What does it look like?"

"It's a white liquid held inside a glass vial, which itself is contained inside a brass canister. They keep it inside such a thing because of it's potency. They tell me a vampire dose not even have to drink it in order to be cured. Once exposed to the air it becomes like the winds, transferring itself to every vampire it comes across for miles. One drop could cure an entire city full of our kind. At least according to them." This information instantly put me in a very good mood. I had thought the cure would only be enough for a few vampires to start their ancient race again, but it seems the cure could restore all the vampires in Nosgoth to their original forms. The only problems left now were obtaining and escaping with it which I had no doubt would not be easy as it sounded.

"Strange the Hylden would tell you all this." I stated, suddenly looking puzzled, even suspicious. Janos levelled his eyes.

"Not intentionally. It was more taunts than anything else. They wanted me to know that they held all the cards." I smirked.

"Not for long they don't." Once that cure in my possession, I could restore the vampires, save them from the humans and achieve my destiny. That is if everything went according to plan, but from long experience I knew that something always came along at the last minute to spoil it. "Can you walk?" Janos paused, testing the strength of his legs. My blood had been able to strengthen him enough to move them, for now at least. The effects of the nourishment would not last too long, my blood would only satisfy the hunger for a while.

"I believe I can." He told me, taking a few steps just to be sure. "Although, I doubt I will be of much of a help in a battle." He was strengthened, but not to the point were he could employ any magic or advanced vampire skills that was for certain. Still, I couldn't leave him behind. He could prove useful later.

"Don't worry about that." I told him.

Agreeably traversing the rest of the tower with Janos as a companion slowed my progress down a little, but not enough for him to become a burden. With my blood coursing through his veins, his strength held out for some time. Surprisingly, we encountered little other Hylden as we advanced up the tower. Only a few guards standing to attention near key doors. This un-nerved me. We were on Hylden home ground and by now, they were sure to know of our presence. The conclusion was clear. We were walking into a trap.

Even as we entered what I gathered to some kind of meeting chamber for high ranking Hylden we met no resistance. Now I was sure of some form of deception. Warriors as ruthless and powerful as the Hylden would never have let us advance this far. The chamber itself was very similar to that in the ancient vampire citadel, large and round with an arched ceiling. A small collection of metal chairs large in turned in a circle in the centre, a sharp pillar of green light lanced directly between them travelling from the ceiling to the floor. At the far end of the chamber away from the door was a long collection of windows that looked out onto the settlement and the surrounding wastelands.

Janos moved to enter the chamber: I held out my hand to stop him.

"Wait…" I told him and carefully put a foot forward, half expecting some giant blade to come swinging down from the ceiling. Slowly I drew the Soul Reaver and marched forwards the centre of the chamber. I couldn't hear anything, no deep rustle of breath that gave away the presence of concealed hunters nor the tingle of any present destructive enchantments.

And then I saw it. Floating in the centre of the pillar of light was a small brass canister about the size of my forearm, the exact object that Janos had described. Could this be the cure?

"Yes, that's it!" Janos began excitedly once he came up to my side. Despite the relief I felt that I had at last found it, I knew that this had all been far too easy. Even when Moebius wanted me to obtain an item he didn't make my acquiring of it this simple. He knew better than that. Still, with the canister so close I had to go for it. Slowly, I reached forwards.

It seems that my long experience in paranoia paid off. As soon as I was an inch from the shaft of light, a large sheet of curved metal came slamming down from the ceiling sealing the canister off. With a loud clank, a concealed door behind just slammed shut as well, trapping the two of us in here and if that wasn't bad enough the green glow of a Ward gate instantly covered it.

"Kain, Scion of Balance." A voice from the very walls themselves whispered and materialising out of some form of translocation magic came several Hylden warriors along with two large black demons with giant goat like horns, flames burning between their large jaws. Quickly they filled the room, encircling the two of us. I scanned the crowd of glowing green eyes, the hilt of Soul Reaver tightly in my grasp. There was a sharp flash of green light and another Hylden emerged, but this one was unlike any others I had seen. It was a good head and shoulders taller than the others, clad in a tight fitting brass armour similar in design to those used by the Sarafan back in Nosgoth. His piercing eyes burning bright green.

"I am T'Kral; High Warrior of House Pyre. As warlord of this Stronghold, I welcome you to our living nightmare." I glanced briefly at the long scythe like weapon strapped around his back; with two serrated blades instead of one. "Do you enjoy this realm Vampire? Can you finally understand our anger now that you have seen what we are forced to endure?" He asked, clenching a fist.

"You have only yourself to blame." Janos snapped angrily. T'Kral glared at him, the glow from his eyes intensifying.

"And why is that cursed one? Because we refused to follow your god. Because we refused to endure your pathetic wheal of fate?" The rest of the Hylden hissed and snarled like starved dogs. I glance around the chamber again to cheek their numbers. They had out numbered and if I tried anything those demons would incinerate us instantly. Not even the power of the Soul Reaver could deflect all their attacks. I would have to come up with something more devious than a direct assault if I was going to get out of this one. "You condemned us for our free will."

"You condemned yourselves with your blasphemy." Janos retorted,

"Your wheal of fate means nothing to us vampire!" An orb of powerful magic burning with green fire formed between his fingers and hurled itself across the room, colliding with Janos's torso. In his weakened state the ancient vampire was sent cascading to the floor.

Instinctively I slashed the Reaver across the Hylden's body, the elemental force of fire already tearing through the air. I had expected it to do the same thing to the Hylden as it had to those demons earlier but to my surprise all T'Kral had to do to stop it was hold out his hand. As the fire reached his body a white shield formed around him, a shield that absorbed the energy and nullified it.

"Foolish vampire." The Hylden general hissed. "Do you really think flames would harm one on House Pyre? We have trained for centuries to harness the elemental force of fire. It can not hurt us." It seemed there was more to the Hylden than even I knew. It seems their factions had unique abilities that I had not yet learnt of. Again unbidden I saw the ruined form Raziel employ another of his Reaver's elemental powers; that of water. I saw he could use that element to freeze entire rivers and water falls and even attackers in their tracks. "Behold cousins, the Scion of Balance. Trapped here with us, in the prison his own people conceived. I've sure the irony is not lost on the fool." A ripple of course laughter echoed through the other Hylden, a laugh that gave over a feeling of deranged detachment rather than any sort of conceivable humour.

"Many have called me a fool, and none of them have lived long." I told them in a ' as a matter of fact' voice.

"Enough!" T'kral bellowed angrily, drawing his weapon. "You were simple to come here Vampire! Now you die!"

"Hand please." I began to Janos; taking hold of his hand before he could argue. The Hylden general charged, his weapon draw and his race's ancient hatred for my kind plain on his face. Elemental power came bellowing through the Reaver, the power of water emitting a cold blast of air through the entire chamber; engulfing entire Hylden warriors in the cold, Ice forming over the walls and ceiling radiating outwards.

The charging T'kral could the full blast and was frozen in mid air, collapsing to the floor with a loud thump. His body completely rigid. Even the demons with their flames became trapped, their legs pinned to the floor by a thick sheet of ice. They screamed in rage, desperately trying to free themselves.

Only Janos and myself had been spared from the effects of the elemental spell, but I was quick to discover the Soul Reaver had been drained of it's power by my use of so many spells. It required more souls in order to replenish it's power supply.

I turned to see that the metal covering behind us had also been frozen and thus weakened. One solid punch was all that was needed to shatter it, leaving the brass canister exposed. In an instant I had in my possession, the cure for the vampires. The one artefact that could put me a giant leap forward to reclaiming my destiny, unfortunately that still left the two of us trapped inside a room with a few dozen defrosting Hylden and Demons.

I had little time so I had to improvise. Grabbing Janos in one arm and the canister in the other; with no other way out; I hurled us both out of the windows.

Now, I confess that my plan hinged on Janos using his wings to slow our decent. He however had been weakened by the Hylden general and he hadn't been too strong to begin with. His wings wouldn't support him in this state never mind me as well. So instead of an effortless glide to safety, we found ourselves plummeting down towards the ground.


	6. Chapter 6: Ewoden

(Quick note; Why Kain could not floa down. When Kain floated in the games, he spread his arms out wide. This suggests that he needed to do this action in order to float.In the fic, hehad one hand around Janos and the other around the canister, keeping him from floating.)

* * *

EWODEN

Chapter 6: The Hylden dimension

With the Wraith Armour now in control of the translocation spell, all either Ewoden or Sally could do as hope for the best. The swirling mists of magic surrounded their bodies as it felt as if the floor of Vorador's mansion had been turnout from under them. Hanging onto each other for dear life, the spell tossed them about on unnatural winds that started out as a pale white but quickly turned to a sickly green. A near overpowering sense of displacement forced itself on the both of them, before the spell ended and both vampire and former Sarafan were thrown violently onto a hard rocky floor.

The air around them was thick and the green mist still hovering like suffocating cloud of gas and instantly the world in which they no occupied radiated unrivalled emotions of despair and dread. Ewoden's sallow breathing resonated through his body and into the air around him, vibrating like a marching drum.

Opening his eyes, he got his first glance of the Demon Dimension. The Prison into which the Hylden had been banished. Everything seemed to a pale green. The sky, the ground and the distant horizon, all blurred together so no point of reference stood out at all. Far away in the mist, jagged spikes of rock lanced out of the ground, curved and serrated; pointed towards the sky.

"Wh…What is this place?" Sally asked, slowly picking herself up. Looking back at her, Ewoden could see that her image was blurred slightly and nearly out of focus. He blinked, then looked again. Her blurred outline remained the same.

"I don't know." He lied. Janos had told him of this place one, but he didn't want to upset her by announcing that they had set foot in a realm that could drive you mad from staying here too long. Why would the Wraith armour take them here? Could it be possible that the Scion of Balance was a Hylden? He scolded himself for that idea. That would be pointless. The Hylden were all driven mad from their imprisonment, they would never help the vampires in any way shape or form.

Perhaps the Wraith armour had messed up? No that wasn't likely either. The armour was created by the ancient vampires, accomplished enchanters. They made sure their creations didn't make stupid mistakes like that.

Still, if the Scion was here, then why? Or, perhaps a set of more important questions could be; how were they going to go about finding him and escaping before this realm turned them insane?

Almost in response, the gauntlet on his right arm pulsated angrily. Bringing it up to his face, he could see the black metal emitting a soft white glow that intensified depending on what position he held it in. To his left, the glow almost died down to nothing, but held to the right it began to glow like a beacon on the shore.

"What's it doing?" The female vampire asked, inspecting the gauntlet with morbid curiosity. Ewoden hummed to himself, then a grin spread over his lips.

"It's like a compass." He began. "The glow strengths when it's pointed in the Scion's direction."

"So he is here then?"

"Let's hope so." Without a deafeningly loud thud, the ground shook unexpectedly. And then again, and again, like giant footsteps. The latest one nearly knocked the former Sarafan's feet out from under him. Striding out of the green mist was the largest and perhaps the most hideous creature either of them had ever seen. It was well over twenty foot tall and covering it's muscular body was a thin layer of black fur. It had goat like legs and arms rippling with muscle, a large series of bony spikes jutting out of it's back and long tail. It was waling across the wasteland some distance away but as some point it caught their scent and stopped. This creatures was so similar to the one that had chased him out of Avernus, Ewoden couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat. It's large hand, crowned with a pair of curved horns turned to face them, a pair of blood red eyes fixing the two significantly smaller creatures with an animalistic stare.

"Don't move a muscle." She told him through clenched teeth. That however became and impossible when it reared it's head back, bellowed and belched a torrent of fire straight at them. "Or we can run away!" They turned and fled, dropping to the ground only once to avoid the deadly flames before scrambling to a run. The demon screeched and began after them, it's tall size allowing it to easily close on them.

Darting behind a rocky outcrop, they narrowly avoided being trampled underfoot by the ferrous beast. Quickly slipping into a crevice in the rock as the shadow of the demon passed over them, the former Sarafan and the female vampire remained perfectly quiet as could.

The beast stopped a short distance away and sniffed the air, luckily, the stench of the realm itself was blocking it's sense of smell and it was not able to locate them that way. For another couple of minutes the creature searched around in the green mist, angry that such an easy meal that slipped away, before eventually and reluctantly it abandoned the search and wandered off. The two of them waited for a whole half an hour after it had gone to make sure it had left before climbing out.

"This place is evil." Sally nearly spat, her skin crawling. "Why could the Scion of Balance dwell in such a pit?" Ewoden couldn't answer that as he'd been wondered the same question. Still, the gauntlet of the Wraith armour continued to tell him that they were going in the right direction. Besides, until he located the Scion there was little chance of escape. He doubted the Wraith armour would let either of them leave until it was returned to the presence of it's intended user.

The landscape of this realm was to be as escaped, hard to traverse and ugly to look at. From time to time, they spotted shapes moving in the mist and kept as far away from them as they could, following the trail the armour led them on. There was no vegetation or water in this wasteland, only unattractive rock formations scattered everywhere. Sally, who was so used to lush forest and dense undergrowth found it more than a little disturbing.

Finally, when they reached a cliff top, in the distance they spotted blinking green lights on the horizon. For a moment they spotted to examine them. They were too far away at the moment to tell for sure, but from this vantage point they appeared to be lights from windows. A Hylden settlement perhaps? The former Sarafan raised his gauntlet. According to the glow, the Scion of Balance was somewhere in the general direction of those lights. Perhaps he had dismissed the notion of the Scion being a Hylden all too quickly.

"We're getting closer." He told sally, before started to make his way down the unsteady slope down towards the canyon below, a large crevice in the ground that lead more or less in the direction they wanted to go.

With a loud shriek and the rippling of the air, several more demons manifested out of notion. Not as large as the previous one, yet just as intimidating. Large bipedal creatures with insect likes pincers for hands, the blue sparks of electricity passing between the claws. Their mouths fall of sharp fangs, eyes raven black and set into a crab like face. Quickly they surrounded Sally, drawn nearly instinctively to her by her vampiric scent. Ewoden turned and held up his left hand, muttering ancient vampiric tests under his breath. Around his hand red runes began manifesting, before a fire ball spell ripped through the air and sent one of the creatures flying backwards, engulfed in flames. Another turned, screeched into the air before charging. But now Ewoden was back on the top of the cliff face, the Axes Havoc and Malice already firmly in his grasp.

Ducking under a deadly swing, the former Sarafan swung his body around slicing it across one of the legs with the edge of Havoc before going for an upper cut, Malice' blade cutting deep through the armoured flesh.

Sally reached into her clothes and withdrew two curved daggers, each with a serrated blade edge. Somersaulting over a swing from one of the demons, quickly she about faced in mid air and drove the blade into it's eye. Shrieking in frustration rather than pain it staggered backwards, clutching at the weapon with it's oversized claws, desperately trying to dislodge it.

While it convulsed, Sally got as close to it as she could a crossed her arms in front of her chest; arcane runes glowing a bright blue appearing one by one around the creature. Once all where it place, the female vampire held her arms out and bolts of silver lighting lanced down from nowhere, tearing hung chucks of flesh of the demon as they systematically striped it's body down to the bones.

Another roar broke the sky and manifested out of nowhere came another demon, larger than the first three and built very much like that one that had chased them when they first arrived; only with fiery orange fur instead of black. Rearing it's head back, it began bellowing torrents of scorching fire at them.

Sally dived to the side, pushing Ewoden out the way as it soured past them, igniting another demon. The creature screamed and began staggering about as it's body was consumed by fire; before it lost it's footing and fell off the cliff.

Despite attempts with spells, this new demon seemed immune to magic and the blows inflicted by the weapons seemed as significant to it as a insect sting. This was one battle they could not win.

Backed up against the edge of the cliff, they had only one place left to go. Giving each other lone last glance, they turned and jumped to the cliff top, a millisecond before the demon igniting the air around them.

Falling down towards a ground engulfed in mist, Ewoden threw himself forward, taking the full blow of jagged rocks that lanced out into the air, protecting Sally from injury. Just as Vorador told him, the wraith armour lessened the damage caused to himself; but at a price. He felt his reserves of magical energy going down. Once they were depleted, the armour would start taxing his soul. Ewoden really didn't want to be in that scenario.

Sally, being a vampire was easily able to slow her decent by gliding. Being human, Ewoden was not so fortunate. However, he was relatively lucky that he had managed to gain some footing on the slope that lead away from the cliff face as he neared the ground. That broke his fall considerably, however he still ended up with a face full of dirt.

High above the demon screamed in outrage before sliding off the cliff edge itself, stumbling clumsily using the curvature of the slope to slow itself. After pulling Ewoden roughly to his feet, they began running towards the Settlement in the distance. Looking back, the former Sarafan could see that the demon had nearly reached the bottom of the cliff. They would never be able to outrun or hide from it now, especially this out in the open. Holding one hand out, he sent a concentrated blast of magic cascading into the rocks above the creature. They trembled as whatever force that held them together dissipated and they collapsed in a rockslide, cascading down on top of the goat like demon, trapping it's large bulk and pinning it to the ground. The creature screamed, desperately trying to pull itself loose as it watched it's intended prey get further and further away.

That would not hold the demon for long. The rocks were already beginning to give way, The former Sarafan hoped however that it had bought them all the time they would require. The gauntlet of the Wraith armoured glowed even brighter than before. Something inside told him that they were now very close.


	7. Chapter 7: Kain

KAIN

Chapter 7: The demon dimension

* * *

With all the Hylden in the Settlement looking for us, hiding from them was a near impossibility. I had what I had travelled here to obtain, the cure for the curse the Hylden inflicted on the vampires after their banishment. It was a brass canister with a white liquid inside. According to Janos, this cure; once released in Nosgoth, would cure all the vampires within it. I certainly hoped that were true, but something nagged at me, telling me that this was all a little too easy. 

Still, my last task here was a simple one. In order to continue any sort of path, I had to escape this place of evil. Unfortunately I had little knowledge in how to go about doing so. Physically, I could leave this dimension. The pillars held the Hylden back, prevented them from travelling back to Nosgoth themselves, but as vampires, Janos and I could freely leave. All we had to do was find an object of magic that enchantment involved a translocation. My own spells were not sufficient here.

T'kral, the Hylden general of this settlement, warrior of House Pyre lead the search for us himself. While not as strong as the Sarafan lord had been, he possessed skills and immunities that surprised even me. For one thing, he appeared quite immune to the Reaver's elemental fire.

"Find them, kill the ancient and bring the Scion to me!" I heard him screech to his troops, who systematically began searching every building. Slowly, I stepped back into the shadows before descending down into a small door into the cellar of a storage area, closing it behind me.

Inside, Janos sat on a large metal crate, cradling the precious brass canister like a newborn infant. His face half lit in the light from single glyph light above. He was fatigued, my blood already beginning to loose it's positive effects in him. I could not risk giving him another dose either, not in this place were the rules of existence were so different. What he really needed was to return to Nosgoth and feed. If not, I doubted he would survive the next few hours.

"After the centuries of suffering our race endured." He began, the need for rest more than evident in his voice. "It seems strange now that salvation should come in so small a form." I could see his point. The white liquid inside the canister was probably no more than a tankard full, yet if it worked as Janos claimed it would restore the ancient vampire race instantly.

I spurned myself for not planning ahead. Raziel made things up ad he went along. I preferred to take careful considerations of my options before making a move. The Reaver on my buzzed, sensing my dismay. Strangely, it seemed to be laughing at me, taunting me for my mistake. Not in a threatening way, but like a friend would tease a close companion. The sword had not acted like this since Raziel allowed himself be absorbed. Now I was more than sure that somehow, his personality had survived inside the blade.

I expected him to go instantly mad, to complete the circle as the previous sprit inside the Reaver had. But apparently, he had bypassed the cycle completely. In curiosity I unsheathed the blade and looked directly into the skull like hilt. It felt like the crafted eyes were watching me.

When I had raised my six sons from the Sarafan crypt, I used a portion of my own vampiric strength to revive them. As such, I could had a loose sense of their location if I concentrated.

At first all I could feel of the Reaver was the elemental force now captured within it. It took some effort to push past that, but eventually I found the inner depths of the blade. He was there. There actually there. I could sense his presence, as stable and sane as ever even aware of his present surrounding.

_Comfortable?-_ I asked him telepathically. His essence seemed startled, having not expected to here my voice speak to him directly, least of all inside there.

_I would prefer not to be here-_ I heard him reply. I took a moment to steady myself. Despite everything, I still considered Raziel to be my son. A son I had never expected to hear from again_. -It's cramped.-_ He added dryly.

_-I thought it might be-_ I decided then and there I couldn't keep up the banter we had enjoyed over our past._ -Raziel, you gave me no warning at all. I was trying to find a way to avoid this outcome-_ He seemed amused, having put me through an emotional roller coaster.

_-I doubt think it could have been avoided.-_ He told me but a hint of intense reluctance in his voice_. -I realized it had to be done, but in a way that cut off the circle. It was that odorous that kept the two of us going round in circles in time. This way I have escaped the madness that claimed the previous sprit within the Reaver,-_

_-You are still trapped.-_ I reminded him. Almost as if I could see his ruined form still there, I felt him smile.

_-For the time being yes. Don't worry about me Kain, I'm here to serve as your blade for now. As for my future, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.-_ Raziel went silent for a moment_. -You should hurry. The effects of your blood are already beginning to were off on Janos. When that happens, he will be too weak to resist the effect of this realm. And you had best not spent too long here either.- _

_-I don't suppose you could tell us they way out?-_ I could here him laughing as the sword's powerful flux I had pushed through to reach him separated the link and I was left alone again. Yet perhaps alone was not quite accurate. I had thought Raziel lost but now I had cause for renewed hope for my eldest sons salvation. If he could survive inside the sword then it was entirely possible to free him from it, once my business was concluded.

If it was ever concluded. I brushed that thought away. Despite many attempts by my enemies to slow be down and even eliminate me, I was making progress. I twitched.

I could sense Hylden moving close by. It would not be long before they discovered us.

Instead of letting them have the advantage, it might prove fruitful to bring the fight to them instead.

"There's going to be more fighting." I told the ancient, edging my way towards the door, holding the Reaver at the ready.

"I thought there might be." He began with a flat unreadable expression. "Leaving the Demon world will not be as easy as entering. We designed it to be so." I stopped. I could here several Hylden just outside the door now. The time for hiding was over.

Taking the Reaver in both hands, I charged out the trap door, knocking on Hylden flat on the floor in the process. The other two were warriors breeds and swung their claws down towards me. I dodged around before slicing one down the chest, leaving a large gaping scar.

Staggering back wounded, I thrust the tip of the sword forward, sinking it into his chest. He made a few gagging sounds, before I let him slide off down towards the floor.

Enraged by his lose, the others screamed and charged. I deflected on blow with my leather bracer before ducking under a burst of magic from another, swinging the Reaver back in an arch, severing a head.

The last one I took hold off with telekinesis and tossed far out of the ally, letting him slide across the ground and into the side of a wall. I leap after him, Reaver held ready.

Before I could sink it's blade into his flesh, I realised my mistake. I had revealed myself a little to earlier than expected. I was out in the middle of the street and a good few dozen Hylden could see me, including T'kral.

Acting on instinct, I picked up my intended victim and tossed him violently back into his fellows, knocking them over into a tangled heap.

T'kral charged, his scythe at the ready.

Deflecting a swing with the Reaver, I retaliated by hit him with a concentrated force projectile. He flew backs, his heels digging into the ground before he stopped a few feet away unscathed. Grinning, he swing his scythe again and again and each time I defended myself, sliding through his clumsily made attacks. I could tell he possessed great skill, but his anger was making his moves uncoordinated.

The thought briefly passed by that, in another time and place, he could have been my pupil. I had trained many vampires in the arts of combat and mental discipline, especially on my rise to power and pained me to see such obvious talent as his go to waste.

Still, I had no time for this day dreaming.

"You're never going to hit me if you remain that angry." I told as we clashed. He simply snarled, swinging his weapon around in an arch trying to slice me across the knees. Evidentially, eons inside this realm had rendered him incapable of perceiving even the basic rules of combat. That you never got emotional. Emotional warriors made foolish mistakes. Often fatal foolish mistakes. I couldn't help but feel a little sorry for him.

Pushing through his defence, I brought the tip of the Reaver across his armour chest plate, cutting through to the flesh. It wasn't that deep a wound, but he staggered back at the same, grasping at the scar in his chest, blood slowly oozing from it. He dropped to one knee, gasping for air.

The other Hylden stopped still, looking stunned that one of their generals had been overcome. Evidentially T'kral commanded some respect amongst them. At least he was doing something right with the chain of command.

"We will not rest until your people are extinct Scion." He told me, still trying to find the strength to rise. "You prevented our escape through the eons of the second Sarafan, but one day, when the binding's decay is sufficient enough we will be free."

"Of that, I have no doubt." I told him, fixing his green eyes with a hard stare. "You're people have every right to want and have freedom." That response surprised him. I saw the confusion plain on his face. Ancient resentment had been bread into him ever since his infancy. He had been raised to think that all the vampires had ever done was do their best to keep their race locked inside this realm, inflicting sadistic punishment for a war fought and lost eons ago. "Although next time you re-enter Nosgoth, remember this." I leaned closer to give a more than close up look of my fangs. "I stopped an insane attempt at extinction in Nosgoth once before." Picking him up with Telekinesis, I let him hang in the air for a brief moment before violently tossing him across the ground so he slid ungracefully into the side of a building.

Janos had now escaped the alley was making his way over to me. Apparently outraged by their generals defeat, the other Hylden screeched and charged, bolts of green magic already passing through the air.

Taking hold of the ancient by the hand, I turned and bolted, using whatever vampiric speed I could muster to dodge around the projectiles as we made our way to the perimeter of the settlement. I had no clear plan, only an inclination that it was not safe here anymore. I looked back towards Janos. Despite his faltering strength, he was still clutching the canister to himself.

By now, the Hylden had summoned strange demons I had not seen before. They had four legs and resembled large dogs with several rows of teeth behind frothing lips, the shoulder blades moulded into a near perfect saddle on the back. These the Hylden mounted and began after us with surprising speed, galloping across expanses of wasteland, chasing us through a thick forest of spiked rocks.

Demons knew the lay of the land here far better than I could ever hope to and the Hylden had been here long enough to tame them. Those beasts would track us down in seconds.

With Janos in tow, we slid down the side of a fissure leading into a deep canyon. I presumed from the way those beasts were built, that steep slopes would not agree with them. Sliding down the rock face, I looked back to see that my presumption had been correct. The dogs barked and snapped like they'd been starved for eons but did not follow us. They would find a way around eventually, so I decided not to linger to enjoy the small victory.

Dodging through the large crevices in towering rocks, we engaged in about an hour of hide and seek with these creatures and their masters, making our way down towards the bottom of a valley heading away from the settlement.

The barking of those beasts ran through the air, growing closer and closer despite my best efforts to delay or outrun them. Fighting them directly would be out of the question. I saw how swiftly they moved, and with their superior numbers they would tear us to shreds.

At once point the passed through a large archway of stone and using telekinesis, I tore the large stone arch above, blocking the pathway.

As far as I could see it was the only through. At the very least I had bought us some time. Time to do what I was still not too sure of.

Janos dropped to his knees, more fatigued now than ever. The green corruption of this realm beginning to spread over his wings.

"I…can not go on…" He offered me the canister. "Take it and…go Kain. I am too weak now. Take the cure and go!" Before I could even reply, I raised the Reaver as I heard sounds coming from a dark crevice in the rock face a few feet away, footsteps and whispered voices. They grew louder as their source approach and to my surprise, the two least likely things emerged. I had expected either a Hylden or a demon, the two most common things found in this realm. Instead standing before me was a female vampire with short blonde hair and deep black eyes, a pair of daggers in each hand. She swung back when saw me, already in a fighting stance. Her companion was a human. His green eyes nearly hidden beneath an untidy mass of red hair. He was clad in a very familiar black armour. An armour I had worn myself once.

The wraith armour.


	8. Chapter 8: Ewoden

(View point flip in this chapter, watch for it!)- I do not own Lok etc

Ewoden

Chapter 8: The demon dimension and the Wilderness of Nosgoth

* * *

Hounded with relentless determination, Ewoden and Sally were forced to take shelter inside a large crevice leading through the canyon wall. From here they could see the large bulking form of the demon scratch around through the jagged rocks, trying to pick up their scent.

Ewoden had covered it with a magic intervention spell so it lead off in several directions at once. Obviously the beast was confused, a pair of large bat like ears that had lain flat against the side of it's head lancing out either side, listening for even the smallest sound.

Sally held her breath as it past close, sniffed the air before striding off, the loud echoing of it's hoofed feet against the hard ground. Ewoden leaned out a little and watched it walk away, it's ears still twitching in the air. It had not given up looking for them yet. It had chased them off a cliff and gotten buried in a landslide. It was hardly about to abandon the chase now.

The glow from his gauntlet was still very strong, enough to light up the small crevice they were hiding in. Ewoden couldn't be sure, but it seemed to him like the glow was intensifying. Was the Scion coming to them or was there some other explanation.

"Has it gone yet?" Sally whispered into his ear. Ewoden looked out again. He couldn't see or hear anything. Not a demon in sight, not so much as a blurred image in the green fog. That disturbed him more than their presence would.

He bent down and picked up a small rock. Hesitating only for a moment, he threw it out from their hiding place. It collided with the side of a stone formation, the echo ringing out through the canyon. Almost at once the demon reappeared, slamming down from above, the dirt leaping into the air as the ground shuddered. It screeched, finding nothing there to reward it's patience, beating at the ground in fury with it's large arms, bellowing smoke and fire from it's lips before disappearing again.

"I'd say not." The former Sarafan replied flatly. The demon was just waiting for them. Predators, especially ones as hungry and relentless as this creature would happily wait days for their prey to show themselves. They were not trapped in this crevice, unless they found another way out.

"There's a gap back here." Sally told him hearing it's thoughts through the Whisper. "It's narrow, but I think I can see a cave inside." Ewoden studied the crack himself. It was indeed narrow. A little too narrow for either of them to pass through, but that was easily rectified. Together, they formed a spell that had been taught to each of them by Janos Audron himself. Piece by piece, the stone began to chip itself away, making the hole bigger.

Once it was big enough, Ewoden managed to push himself through. The cave beyond was too dark to see clearly, but he could tell it had a very high ceiling and from the distant dripping, he could tell there was water here somewhere; or some kind of liquid at least. Bringing his fist up, the rays of a light spell shot outwards, illuminating what little of the cave it could. Looking down, he saw that he was on the threshold of a narrow path of rock that stretched over a long fall to a small pool below, the liquid a pale green. Giant stalactites hung around him, their beginnings still; concealed in the shadows near the ceiling. One the far side of the path was another opening, this one considerably wider than the first.

"Looks like we can go this…" He began turning back; before he could complete his sentence however a large yellow almost reptilian eye passed by the entrance to the crevice, fixing Sally with a sharp unyielding glare. The female vampire shot round, frozen to the spot. The demon pulled way began before ramming its horns forward again, the shot shaking at it's collision. Sally was nearly thrown out of the cave by the sheer force, the claws on the end of those huge arms scrapping at the cliff face trying to carve her out. "Quickly, through here!" Ewoden shouted, pulling her through into the cave beyond as a long finger like claw snaked through into the crevice, scratching at them trying to get a grip.

Even the demon realized that it couldn't open the rock to get at them and that knowledge infuriated it to no end. Still, it did have one more weapon it could use to retrieve it's meal. It backed off to a safe distance and stood stock still for a moment. Then it's head began to bop up and out as it forced something out of its stomach and back up it's throat, the sides of it's neck expanding.

"What is it doing?" Sally demanded. She got her answer however when it spat forward and a large, snake like creature escaped it's jaws, a great deal of red slime oozing out with it. Ewoden felt his stomach turn.

This new creature shook itself up as it slid out of the red mucus, a large pair of jaws with several rows of teeth lining it's scaly lips. It looked up towards the other creature who spawned it, which gestured towards the crack in the canyon wall. The meaning was instantaneously clear. That creature was small enough to fit through the crevice. It's mission to retrieve them, to serve them both as a meal to it's creator.

It soon became obvious that this spawn was immune to any sort of magic they could muster. Attempts to burn, cut or destroy it failed. It's slimly skin just seemed to absorb the energy, making its hunting efforts even more vigorous as it snaked it's way through the large series of caves they were forced to run and hide through.

It was as relentless at the demon, a shade in the shadows, sliding through dark corners and cracks where they could not go, forcing them down dead ends and to the edges of sharp drops. Despite being newly born, it was a formidable hunter.

Attempts at getting close enough to use ordinary weapons would prove fatal. Those serrated jaws and lighting fast reactions would shred either of them before they even had time to lift an axe.

So instead, they were forced to run, using whatever advantage they could in order to try and escape. All the while the glow from Ewoden's gauntlet steadily increased and it's pull lead them through the towering and narrow corridors, through darkness and across pathways over deep pits.

Still the creature hunted them, a demonic python intent on dragging their carcass' back to it's creator.

Emerging out from a cave, the two of them were faced with an even more terrifying sight. Standing directly in front of them as they made their way out into the green fog again was a humanoid type creature with green skin and cloven hands like an ancient vampire. Thick black leather bracers were wrapped around each arm, brass armour around the calves. It wore only a pair of near loose black leather pants. His chest was bare, apart from a single brown leather strap running across his shoulders, a red drape connected to a golden disc in the middle. Long white hair tied back into a pony tail lowed out from behind a ridge of skin covered horns lining the hair line.

As soon as it saw them, it shot around, a claymore blade in it's hands. A sword Ewoden instantly recognised. It was the Reaver blade, the sword to be wielded by the destined liberator of all, the Scion of Balance. As if in confirmation of his find, the gauntlet of the Wraith armour glowed bright white, as if satisfied to be in the presence of it's intended owner.

The creature paused, before drawing the sword back and slamming it forward. It missed both Ewoden and Sally and instead sank deep into the flesh of the snake that had been chasing them, pinning it to the gravel. The creature hissed violently, before dying, shrivelling up into a black ash like substance.

"Sally, Ewoden?" A weak voice asked. Turning, the former Sarafan could now see the creatures' travelling companion. It was an ancient winged vampire; one they were both very familiar with. Clad in little more than jags was their tutor in magic and arcane science, Janos Audron himself. The one they had left unprotected in the aerie, unintentionally leaving him at the mercy of the invading Sarafan inquisitors. He was alive and well, the wound in his chest gone as if his heart had never been removed.

"The Wraith armour, give that to me!" The first being snapped, tearing the glowing gauntlet out of Ewoden's grasp. There was a sudden snarling and a large column of rock nearby began tumbling, large paws with serrated claws scrapping frantically at the dirt. The vicious snarling of demonic dogs only a few feet away ringing in the air. Without warning one of them burst through, an insanely furious creature with dripping fangs and powerful muscles, ridden by a smaller humanoid like creature with white insect like skin and glowing green eyes. Seeing them standing there, it raised a spear like weapon ready to throw. "Maybe another time." The vampire muttered with a smug grin, clenching a fist around the gauntlet, the white haze of an intervention spell suddenly surrounding all of them as it used the armour's own reserve of mana to toss all four of them into the infernal winds of magic.

The horrors of the demons dimension vanished as Ewoden felt magic lift him from this place, sending them hurtling near uncontrollably back towards boundaries of Nosgoth.

* * *

The introduction of the exact artefact I required to ensure our escape from the demon dimension ranged on the coincidence I would expect from one of Moebius' plans. But not one to look a gift horse in the mouth and with time pressing me ahead, I used the armours already impeded power to tear Janos Audron and myself away from that place. The two that had brought the Wraith armour to me, the human and the female vampire were caught in the after math of my hastily made spell and were forced to tag along as I emerged back in Nosgoth.

More than seven hundred years after I had first left.

From the smell of the air around me as the porthole left the four of us alone in a forest clearing that the Pillars lay in the state of disrepair I had forced on them.

Apparently my theory had been correct. Inside the demon dimension. Time meant nothing. So that was the secret to the time travel of the Hylden, if they focused their magic enough they could create doorways to any heroically period they wished. Only question that mattered to me was, exactly what era had I emerged into?

I didn't have to look far to find the answer. The clearing we had emerged in was in the middle of a dead forest, the towering husks of trees standing around us like decaying giants. The remains of their few leaves lay scattered across the muddy ground, some still gently falling from the thin canopy above. A thick mist hung in the air, it's torch refreshing as the cancerous presence of the demon dimension. Some distance away on the far side of the clearing was a wooden stake stuck in the ground, a banner marking the territory of a clan or faction. The symbol on the banner was uniquely familiar to me.

It was the mark of the second Sarafan, the rebirth of the Order under the control of the Sarafan Lord. I had arrived in a time when The Sarafan controlled Nosgoth from it's capital, the city of Meridian.

If I needed any more confirmation, not to far away from the first were another collection of stakes, although these bore the Sarafan order's other logo, instead they lay encrusted with impaled vampires, some still fresh and others decaying away, rotted bones falling into the dust.

Despite the decadent era, I was glad to be away from that place. I never realized until now how much I appreciated the cold touch of the air, or the rustle of dead leaves beneath my feet. Still, now was not the time for day dreaming about such things. Sheathing the Reaver, I turned towards Janos, who still had the canister in his arms.

I cast a quick glance towards the other two who had tagged along. The human looked more confused than afraid. Odd, especially for his race. Exactly that had they been doing in the demon dimension and with the Wraith armour, an armour I wore myself at one time?

I turned away then. It wasn't really important anyway.

"Janos?" The female vampire began after an awe ridden silence. Her black eye were side with shock. "But how…"

"I have no time for this." I muttered, weary of his near never ending journey. Wrenching the canister from Janos' grip with my mind, I paused to study it now in my own talons. Through a small window directly in the centre, I could see the white liquid the ancient had described, the cure itself.

With one single action, I would come monumentally closer to my destiny. I attempted to break the canister open, to expose it's contents to the world; to cure every vampire in Nosgoth.

To my dismay, the canister remained intact. I tried again, bring all my strength to bear. Still the material this container was made out of remained whole.

Anger, I dropped it and brought the Reaver to bear, swinging it over my shoulder and directly down onto it. There was sharp resonation that echoed through the dead forest, but still the canisters surface refused to break.

"I thought as much." Janos began, sitting down on the forest floor, visibly exhausted.

"Why won't it break open?" I demanded through clenched teeth.

"The technology used to create this container is more advanced than anything you can imagine Kain." Was the reply. "I suspect it will take more than physical strength or even the Reaver itself to open it." I clenched my hands around the hilt of the Soul Reaver in utter frustration. I knew it had been too easy. Obtaining the cure, rescuing Audron and escaping with both back into Nosgoth. Despite a few incursions by the Hylden it had all gone well. Apparently too well.


	9. Chapter 9: Kain

Kain

Chapter 9: The City of Meridian

* * *

The frustration was almost more than I could bear. I came so close to restoring the vampire race, only to have it snatched away at the last possible moment. Without a means of opening it, the canister containing the ultimate cure for vampirism was worse than useless. 

Howling in anger, I thrust the Reaver blade into the ground; the tip sinking into the soft mud all the way up to the hilt.

_Temper Kain, temper.-_ I heard Raziel's captive sprit murmur. Growling, I sat down on a rock that jutted out from the ground, resting my head on my fist. My thoughts were a whirl again. I had the cure, but how was I supposed to open it's container without the help of the Hylden? My hopes had been so high…

"And just who are you?" I demanded at the two visitors, my question more directed at the human than the vampire.

"These are two students of mine Kain." Janos explained. "Vorador brought them to me for study." I had heard of such practices. During ancient times when Vampires were still an angelic race, humans were often selected to study under a mage or scientist; to learn some of the vast knowledge accumulated by the Ancients. "Vorador considered Ewoden here to be quite a triumph." Audron added gesturing to the human. "He used to a member of the Sarafan."

"A Sarafan!" I demanded, nearly reaching for the Reaver in impulse. I regarded this human now with renewed interest. He seemed as weak and feeble as the others of his kind, but in his bright emerald green eyes I could see an uncharacteristic determination, an unrelenting persona I would have expected from Raziel. His red hair was a complete mess, hanging down the sides of his head in tangles, the tips getting stuck in his the Wraith armour. His muscular build showed he had left an activate life, often in the wildness.

He was no amateur, I could see that by the fact that he wore furs underneath his armour to keep warm. That notion wouldn't have come to the common traveller. Two large axes were strapped across his back in an 'X', along with a quiver full of arrows and a bow.

Just because Janos trusted him, did not mean I had reason to. The Sarafan were Moebius' creation and their members could prove just as manipulative as he was.

I turned away. It wasn't really important anyway. I had other things on my mind right now, like just what my next move as going to be. I doubted the Hylden were going to take my theft lightly.

Janos gasped and clutched his chest, falling to his knees, struggling for air.

"Sire!" Sally, the female vampire began in distress, instantly at his side. Janos managed to recover some of his strength, but not enough to allow him to sit back up. He lay there amongst the dead autumn leaves, breathing heavily. "Janos, what is the matter?"

"He needs to feed." I told them, sheathing the Reaver across my back. "Wait here with him, I shall return with sustenance for him." With that, I began to wander off towards the trees. Perhaps at the same time I could see exactly what part of Nosgoth I was in.

"Kain, wait…" Janos called after me. I stopped and looked back at him over my shoulder. "Do not kill anyone to feed me. I refuse to drink the blood of the innocent." He told me, his tone of voice leaving no doubt he meant what he said. While isolated inside his mountain retreat, Janos had magically summoned blood to fed himself, eliminating his need to hunt ordinary humans. The story of his terrorising the citizens of Nosgoth was a lie; propaganda spread by the first Sarafan crusade.

Janos had no killer instincts and valued life, human or vampire. It was his only attachment to the ancient times he could retain under the present circumstances.

"I will do what I have to." I sniffed the air, the thick smell of freshly spilt blood already in the air and from not to far away too.

Dissipating into bats, I flew through the dark limbs of the trees until I spread myself over the top of the canopy. From this vantage point, I surveyed the lay of the land. We had emerged from the demon dimension on the coast of the great southern sea, the southern border of Nosgoth just over the nearest to hills. The thick stretch of the forest running along a thin line of mountains going north. The area was a labyrinth of canyons and valleys stretching all the way northwest to the more civilized area's of Nosgoth. If I read the stretch of coast correctly, then we were about a few miles from Meridian; the capitol of Nosgoth.

I let my bats recon the area, following the thick scent of blood through the trees until I came across the source. A trader caravan heading towards the city from one of the coastal settlements had come under attack. From what I could not be certain, but the bodies of the merchants themselves were still fresh, the wounds recent. Their caravan had been tipped over, the vehicle lying on it's side, a dead tree collapsed over it.

From the marks in the ground it had been quite a struggle; an ambush if I was correct. Whoever or whatever attacked them had superior numbers. The traders didn't have a chance. Probably a few mutants resulting from the corruption of the pillars, hungry for flesh. Retrieving one of the merchants bodies, I returned to the clearing were I left the others.

"Here." I said, dropping the dead body in front of the ancient vampire. He looked annoyed. "I didn't kill him, he was dead when I got there." Seemingly satisfied, he approached the body and began feeding.

The human, Ewoden looked away, a faint hint of green passing over his face. I didn't hold that against him. Feeding on the living was one thing but on the dead was considered dirty, even for vampire. Janos was only doing it because if he needed it, or within the next few minutes he would die.

"Why is everything here dead?" Ewoden asked, looking around at the forest with a mixture of awe and horror.

Being a former member of the original Sarafan order, the human was used to seeing Nosgoth as it was intended to be. A land full of life and lush forest, overflowing with vitality. He was unused to seeing the corruption I had inadvertently spawned upon it.

"Over time, things change." I told him, looking out through the trees to the cloudy horizon. Meridian was the closest settlement. We were too exposed out here in the wild. Also, I needed information; I need to know exactly what year this was. Had we emerged before I killed the Sarafan Lord or after? If it was before, then I would have those bothersome Glyph wards to content with.

By now, Janos had finished feeding. I could tell instantly we had not completely satisfied his hunger but the growing sense of nausea he felt about feeding from a corpse drove him back.

"We should bury him." He began, wiping the blood from his lips. "That is the human custom?" The former Sarafan nodded grimly. They didn't even wait for my opinion that they were wasting valuable time, Ewoden simply magically craved a hole in the ground and Janos gently lowering the corpse inside, the dirt almost instantly covering it up again.

Sighing, I picked up the canister from the forest clearing floor and began to walk off.

"Wait!" Turning, I saw the human run up towards me. He stopped by my side and studied the Reaver across my back for a moment.

"You are the Scion of Balance aren't you?" It surprised me he even knew the title, however I said nothing. He read the answer in my face and smiled.

"Fine you found me." I answered, now irritated. "Now leave me alone." He turned and began off again.

"I can help you." The human called after me. I stopped near the edge of a rock jutted out over a steep face to another part of the forest below. From here I could see for miles.

"I don't need or your help." I replied angrily, giving him a side glance over my shoulder. I couldn't be sure if Raziel was silently reminding me of his good intentions or it was stir of my long dormant humanity, but I couldn't stay in that mood for long. Sighing, I turned back. "The city of Meridian lies due west." I told him, pointing out towards the horizon. "I'm heading there to pick up some information. If you three can keep up, then follow." Janos needed a safe house to fully recover in. The closest one I could think of was Sanctuary, the headquarters of the Cabal; the vampire resistance.

Vorador had kept it hidden from the Sarafan for two hundred years. It should be enough to provide a place of relative safety in which to plan.

"Janos, can you fly?" Sally asked the ancient as she helped him make his way to his feet, now apparently much stronger. Audron flapped his black wings, testing their strength. Despite being liberated from the demon dimension, he still retained the orange streak down each feather.

"Yes, I believe I can." He replied, stretching them out to their full width. Grunting in my throat, I turned back and became again a hoard of bats, disappearing into flight.

* * *

After the rise of my first army, the mercenary army created by the Time Streamer was forced to change in order to survive. The Sarafan Lord took up the challenge, remoulding them into the New Sarafan order, a puppet order he used to squash my forces as the walls of Meridian and oppress the humans for over two hundred years. Their rule came to an end after I killed the Sarafan Lord in combat, destroying his plans to invade Nosgoth and starting my own quest for power. 

Looking back on it all now, I release how foolish and blind I had been. I wanted to rule Nosgoth, but what I inherited from my conquests was nothing by a lifeless set of rocks. Something not worth the effort.

It had all been pointless and I had sacrificed everything to obtain it, even the life of one who I might call my love. Umah, the female vampire who had watched over me while I lay dormant. We fought the Sarafan oppressors together and then she betrayed me by stealing the Nexus Stone, the one item I needed to bring the Sarafan Lord to his knees.

I dealt with her as I dealt with all traitors. I dealt her death.

That was the closest act I have ever committed that reached my definition of sin. I had convinced myself that she was one of the Sarafan lord's spies in order to justify my crime, when in reality Umah had taken the stone only because she distrusted my intentions.

Sitting alone on my seat of power, over looking a useless wasteland; I realized she had been right. Ironically, the Sarafan's lords statement proved truth. That my ambition to rule the world - _"was nothing more than the youthful craving of a petty noble, who had gained too much power but never enough." -_

Meridian was as dark and dank as I remembered it. Arriving on a roof top overlooking the lower city, the dismal dirty streets casting dark shadows across the ground. Much of it lay in disrepair, many buildings with boarded up windows.

The streets themselves were near deserted, the occasional glimpse of a human scurrying from a doorway and out of the fading light like a cockroach. The lack of Ward Gates in the area showed I had arrived after the Sarafan Lord had fallen and the presence of the Hylden removed. Currently my younger self was busy at work creating the Clans, setting the Pillars up as my seat of power. Since the city was now all but deserted, I summarized that about five to ten years had passed since the fall of the second Sarafan Order. People were already feeling settlements to hide inside strongholds, desperately trying to run away from my advancing armies. Ironically, I had become as corrupt as William; the Nemesis. The very man I had fought against in the Battle of the Last Stand.

This made things easier. I was by far not in the mood to deal with Sarafan right now.

Sanctuary lay concealed underneath the Blue Lady Shop. The district in which it lay had fallen into disrepair, the many bridges and gates that turned the city into a maze had fallen down, possibly because they had been cut off from Glyph magic. The Blue lady had been boarded up since I left, but a swift kick knocked the boards aside revealing the near undisturbed state in which it lay.

It was here that Vorador commanded the resistance, fighting a hit and run war against Sarafan operations; but finding the chambers underneath the shop empty, I realized he had long since left the premises. I had half expected to find him here waiting for me. Instead I was just greatest by empty and derelict rooms.

Shortly after, Janos arrived with his two students. Ewoden, the former Sarafan came first. His use of magic to follow me even in bat form was impressive, for a human at least.

While they helped the ancient onto a stone table to rest, I explored what I could of the chambers. Leaving this place, Vorador had left nothing behind to pin point his whereabouts. But still I needed information from him.

Vorador had once been Seroli, humans who had studied under both vampire and Hylden tutors. If anyone could tell me how to open the canister, it would be him. Still, the Vorador of this time would not be inclined to help me, as I had dispatched his fondest lieutenant. What I needed in order to loosen his tongue was a bargaining chip.

And that was where Janos came in.


	10. Chapter 10: Sally

(I do not own LoK, etc.)

SALLY

Chapter 10: The city of Meridian

* * *

Seven hundred years? Propelled a drastic amount of time into the future, Sally could see, no; feel the corruption in the air. What had happened that so drastically altered Nosgoth in this way? 

Had all of them not experience bizarre things of this nature before, their minds would have rejected the possibility completely. But the evidence was more than clear. Neither of them was in control of this situation that was clear. The former Sarafan himself suspected they never had been, now more than ever.

The city of Meridian was a ghastly dank place. A maze of streets and back allies, all clocked in shadow. The soft veil of the night gathering over the world like a wave preparing to sweep over them all.

Banners of the second Sarafan crusade fluttered everywhere, that cross like symbol on a blood red banner; although a lot of them had either fallen away or torn. Very few humans walked the streets, and those that did seemed to have the common sense to stay mostly out of sight. But what was most disturbing about this metropolis was it's size. This district alone covered acres of ground. Nothing came close to comparing to it before. They were from a simpler time, of small huddled villages and towns: warm taverns with a tankard of mead at the ready.

Kain, the vampire who had taken it upon himself to lead their small band seemed to know where he was going and eventually he leads them all over the rooftops to an abandoned shop in a decay street. A rotted sign with the words: **_Blue Lady, 'Curious' _**flapped in the wind outside.

"This will do for now." The vampire stated, leading them down into a surprising amount of underground stone chambers beneath the establishment, giving one last look through a few last empty rooms, as if confirming it was abandoned. "You should wait here Janos." He told the ancient vampire.

"And where are you going?" Janos asked wearily, settling himself down by the side of a wall, using his large black wings to keep himself warm.

"I have business else ware." Kain replied, sheathing the Reaver across his back. "You and your…" He paused to give Sally and Ewoden a sideways glance. "Friends; should be safe here for a time." Without another word, he vanished, disappearing into the midst of a translocation spell.

With little to no knowledge of this new time, they had little option but to follow his advice. This Nosgoth was new to their eyes and wandering around without foreknowledge of events was dangerous.

The city stank. It was an appalling smell that almost made the former Sarafan want to gag. After some investigation, Ewoden discovered that it was rising from large grate over a sewer pipe leading downwards in one of the chambers. They were all used to small settlements, dingy taverns and dirt floors. This more advanced age of metal and stone seemed alien and strange.

"I never thought, after so many years that you would still be alive." Janos began wearily.

"When we left to find the Scion of Balance, you had only recently been murdered." Ewoden replied, giving the interior of the now deserted sanctuary another look around. "Something happened to the Order after they took your heart, in our time it was dying away." The ancient chuckled.

"It seemed to have made a come back." He gestured towards the world around him. "As for my heart…" He began, before Sally held out a hand silencing them both. Through their shared link in the Whisper Ewoden could sense that her sensitive vampiric hearing that picked up something. Janos stopped and looked thoughtful as well, as if he could hear the exact same thing. It took a moment, but eventually Ewoden managed to pick it up as well, the familiar sound of marching feet clad in armour. By the echoing sound that made it's way from the corrupted world outside.

The sound Ewoden only associated with a large band of Sarafan Knights. The marching endured for another few moments, before beginning to dissipate, vanishing into the silence. The former Sarafan let out a small sigh.

"One of us should probably investigate that." Sally muttered, brushing a few strands of blonde hair out of her eyes. Janos shook his head.

"Kain's plan should be followed. We should wait here until he returns." Ewoden chuckled to himself, folding his arms.

"IF he returns." The vampires character was certainly in question. He didn't seem the friendliest of people at least. The suspicion that he had gone and dumped them here while he made off in some other direction seemed more than probably. Hours began to pass and every now and then, they would hear more and more patrols. All sounded like at least a dozen men in armoured boots, marching to a beat drummed out by someone up front. A standard Sarafan marching drill. "Have we heard five groups by now, is it the same bunch walking around in circles?" Ewoden asked, leaning against the nearest wall to the outside with his ear pressed against it. Sally shook her head.

"The first ones didn't have a drummer." She pointed out, a frown set steadfast on her face. "I'm going to have a look." That ignited worry in the former Sarafan, worry that despite his best efforts leaked over his end of the Whisper. He had heard at least two dozen men up there walking around, and if they were all Sarafan Knights they would try to kill her. She smiled at him, flattered by his petrified concern for her well being and at the same time pushing over reassuring thoughts and emotions to him.

Her thoughts told him that she would take the greatest care. She would only be gone for a moment, just to see what was happening. Once she had that information, she would return right here.

"Keep the Whisper open." Janos announced, his own highly tuned vampiric senses allowing him to ease drop on their private conversation. "That way, if you get in any trouble we can come to your aid as quickly as we can." That came out as he intended it to, as an order rather than a request. When an ancient vampire gave you an order, even a pacifist like Janos, you obeyed it without question.

She could sense that Ewoden was still not happy about it, but he let her go, handing her Havoc; one of his Axes to defend herself with. She'd expected the weapons to unbearably heavy, but in fact this weapon felt as light as one of her throwing daggers.

Sally began her recognisance by remaining hidden in the shadows of the abandoned shop above, watching out the window. There were indeed a lot of Sarafan knights outside, all arranged in a stand platoon formation. But these knights were nothing like the lightly armoured warriors of their era. The knights of this time were clad in armour so thick is looked far to heavy for them to physically lift it. Those at the front had the largest armour, with large paring shields on each arm and an almost ridiculously large broadsword strapping to the underside of the one on their left hand side. Their helmets had a red duo of plume arching forwards, a large steal mask protecting the lower half of their faces. A long red flowing cape, with their order's symbol on it flowed out behind them. The other knights were less glamorised, but never the less their armour was sufficiently different to the warriors Sally had been used to seeing.

They patrolled the streets in ranks. When they came across a human they demanded it's alliance of it. If the answer wasn't the almighty Sarafan, they cut them down then and there. Sally saw it happened. One man with a back bone stood up to them and called their order nothing but fascist regime. The interrogating knight didn't hesitate, he simply withdrew his broadsword and ran the unfortunate through.

Those that did swear alliance, they took with them; knocking on the doors of buildings that looked like they could still house people. By the time they began to make their way to the Wharves along the river, trailing alongside them at sword point were at least two hundred humans. All of them looked ragged and tried, some obviously not fed for days.

Sally watched from the roof stops of a building. Waiting for them were several war ships and fraters, all barring the Sarafan banners. From here, it looked like the knights were evacuating the populace, but this looked more like a round up than an evacuation. Crates were being loaded onto cargo vessels, all full of seized items taken from the Upper city. The Sarafan warriors had strip mined the district, taking anything of value and leaving the buildings themselves to rot.

"Rejoice my brothers." A voice from the ships proclaimed. Everyone, including the Sarafan knights looked up. Standing at the top of the gang way was a man clad in a pure white robe, three golden belts were wrapped around his waist and torso and one over his should, a hood heading over his head concealing the upper half of his face. He had the hair and beard of a grey old man, but he had a strangely well built body underneath his clothes. "The mercy of the one god has delivered you to the light, from the dark that dwells to the north." The crowd of humans looked nervous. They'd heard all this before. The Sarafan had been preaching this exact same thing before and they'd gotten from them was two centuries of dictatorship. "These ships will safely bare you to the east, to the province of Willendorf. There you will remain safe from the vampire menace, until the master conquers the monstrous Kain." That word sent hushed whispers throughout all of them. Kain was a name all of them knew. "Come, now we take you home." The Sarafan knights all drew their swords and began herding the reluctant citizenry onto the boats, some with the edges of blades pressed against their backs. "Do not resist my friends." The old man added quickly when it began obvious the crowd. "This is the will of god, who smiles on us and under his watchful eye we will be delivered to salvation." This guy took preaching to a whole new level, Sally thought to herself. Ewoden agreed, he'd heard his Order do some motivating speeches before; but his man excelled.

Janos wondered why all the people were being forced to leave. Willendorf was hardly suited for such a population. With the Sarafan's record taken into account, there had to be some ulterior motive.

"Perish in the light fiend!" A voice shouted and Sally knew instantly that her position was compromised. Before she could react, a Sarafan Warrior clad in full armour rose up in front of her, flying on a pair of whit angelic wings made of pure light it seemed and not just any light, **_sunlight!_**

Their very presence burned Sally and she recoiled back to the far wall, trying cover herself; her skin beginning to blacken as rays of white fell over her.

"SALLY NO!" Ewoden nearly screamed down the Whisper. Reaching for one of her daggers, Sally cast the weapon directly at the Sarafan who had not been prepared for it and the blade sank through the armour and into the flesh; blood oozing out through the cracks in the metal. He screamed and descended towards the ground, the glow from the wings died down. Still blinded, Sally desperately tried to escape. Even before she could two more angel like Sarafan came seemingly out of nowhere, their wings burning her light never before.

Cornered light a animal, she desperately lashed out with the Axe Havoc at anything she could see but the light was no much. It burned, she could feel her skin begin to smoulder; thick smoke rising from her arms and legs.

Then, as everything went dark all she heard with a brief rush of a translocation spell engulf her body before she blacked out.


	11. Boss 1: Vorador

KAIN

Boss 1: Vorador

* * *

I did not intend to go to Vorador, rather to have him come to me. Finding a barren piece of land some distance from the city walls where I could easily see anything approach, I unfastened the ancient ring from my left ear. This ring Vorador had given me on my misguided quest eons ago. It had allowed me to summon his help to defeat the Paladin Malek at Dark Eden. The ring was made from his own alloy, broken teeth and dried blood. Vorador did not use the metal often, only for various trinkets he passed around. The metal was his signature, a means of intimidation to keep easily sacred humans in their place.

"I summon you Vorador." I spoke to the ring in my hand, clenching my hand around it. I felt the captured magic within buzz as the message was sent burning across the sky, vanishing on the horizon. Now, all I could do was wait.

He did not keep me waiting as I had first expected him to. About a minute after my summons was first sent, the ancient Vampire appeared out of a translocation spell, that familiar arrogant look on his face. His red robe flapping around him in the harsh wind that beset the air. He didn't say anything at first, simply regarding me with suspicion. He was used to the earlier Kain, not my evolved form.

"Who are you?" He demanded, jabbing a finger at me. "How dare you summon me!"

"Oh Vorador, I thought I had your permission?" Gently, I handed to him the ring I had kept for so long. Recognising the trinket at once, he picked it up between two fingers and examined it, making sure he had not made a mistake. Then he turned back to me, a fait glimmer of recollection in his eyes.

"You are not Kain." He stated confidentially. "That vampire lies busy to the north raising a vampire army."

"Then centuries later, he discovers one of the Time Streamers devices and travels back through history to change it." That caught him off guard. The ancient vampire was silent, looking over my appearance. I was obviously vampiric, and he could not deny I bore a striking resemblance to the Kain he was used to; but still the pale green skin and horns along the hair line were new. "If you need more proof…" Slowly to reassure him it was not a hostile action, I drew the Soul Reaver. As it's physical maker, he recognised the sword at once.

Nimbly he took the blade and tested it's weight. For a moment, he was silent, before turning to me with hate brewing in his eyes and slashing me across the arm with my own sword.

"Are you simple Vorador?" I demand angrily, staggering backwards. He stopped, watching the wound in my arm begin to disappear. The ancient vampire remained silent, before tossing the Soul Reaver off to the side, the tip of the sword sinking into the soft ground.

"I swore an oath to make you pay, and I intend to honour that oath!" He stated, holding out both arms; two balls of golden lightning gathering between his talons.

"Don't make me do this Vorador." I warned him, clenching my own claws. "Do you wish to die again?" I asked, the wound finally healing by itself. Without warning he tossed intertwining bolts of magic toward me. Sliding to the side, I gathered some magic of my own and cast a spell straight at him. The raw energy rippling across the ground like thunder and striking him across the side.

Deflecting it with an egg shaped shield, he came flying after me with a kick to my stomach; before landing several swipes on my shoulders. Recovering from the blows, I blocked his next attack before grabbing his leg and tossing him backwards straight into a dead tree. As the crumbling branches fell around him, he swung back to his feet and fired a succession of magical energy straight at me.

Ducking to the side I avoided each one and it also left me in a perfection position to grab the Soul Reaver tearing it up from the ground by the hilt. Seeing me once again armed, Vorador reached inside his robe and armed himself with his own sword.

I darted in close and slashed. As if he knew what I had intended, he blocked the blow.

"For what you did to Umah, Kain; I can never forgive you." He snarled at me as we clashed. "I should have let the Sarafan Lord kill you, should have left you to die at the bottom of some ravine where we found your broken body." Scowling, he kicked him aside and slashed at him with the Reaver blade, cutting a portion of his robe off. Enraged, he swung at me again and again with his sword.

The fight raged on and at one point Vorador managed to grab my arm and with hatred burning in his arms, slashed me repeatedly across the arm, the blade biting almost to the bone. I drew my arm back, cutting myself before in the process before throwing all of strength behind a telekinesis blast.

He did the same the two mental projections met in the air, one trying to overcome the over. As for the two of us, we remained silent; our eyes locked on one another as we concentrated on.

While Vorador was not physically stronger then I was, his other vampiric gifts were sufficiently more potent. He was beginning to overpower me with his mind.

"I make no excuses for my crime Vorador." I told him, pouring all I had into TK abilities. He forged a scowl and pushed back with equal force. "And nothing will ever change the fact that I did what I did. My regret does not enter into the equation."

"Regret?" Vorador shot back, his anger taking hold of his entire body it seemed. "You are incapable of such a thing. You are a monster, bent on nothing but claiming power!" The struggle broke as he charged forward with his sword held high. As he reached me I blocked his swings with the Reaver before ducking under his swipe and landing a punch on his chin.

Staggering back a few feet, he paused to steady himself before attacking again with all the devotion of a Sarafan knight. Grabbing him by the shoulders, I tore one of his shoulder pads away and most of his red robe overcoat came off with it; leaving him in with only a white shirt and blue pants. Undeterred, he slashed again cutting a deep scar across my chest. Blood poured out onto the dying land and I collapsed to my knees, supporting my weight on the Reaver blade as I struggled to breath; desperate to force the wound shut. "It is rare that I must take the life of a fellow vampire and even so I do so with reluctance and regret." I looked up at him, holding on hand over the wound. He was holding his sword to the side, ready to swing it directly across my neck to severe my head. "But this time I will take much pleasure in it."

"Now who's the monster?" I asked him with a sly grin, before rolling to the side and swinging my leg around, knocking both of his out from under him. As he went down, his sword was sent spinning from his hands.

Dodging to the side, he brought his talons sharply upwards striking me across the chin. Recoiling, I left myself open to a kick, landed directly against my stomach. Using the opportunity through, I grabbed his leg and tossed him over my shoulder and then slammed him hard into the ground.

Before he could rise, I flicked my Reaver across and held it's tip against his throat, pinning him there. Neither of us moved for a moment, that hostile atmosphere stagnating in the air. "Kill me then, if you won't then your younger self will in time." Vorador began sourly, closing his eyes but keeping that annoying scowl on his face.

Growling, I simply sheathed the Reaver across my back before offering him a hand up. He stared at my open palm like it was about to bite him, before taking it.

"You have me confused with someone else." I told him, before backing off to a safe distance to show him that despite our little scuffle I intended him no ill will. "I have had over a thousand years to think about what I've done and that's more than enough time to realize jut how wrong and idiotic I'd been." He said nothing, instead fixed me with a steely glare.

"What do you want?" He demanded after a second of contemplation.

"Assistance." I told him. "I have acquired an item of Hylden technology that I need opened." Again he maintained silence, before turning away.

"I have no time for this." He began after an angry sigh. "With the Sarafan again on the rise, my time is running out once more."

"What?" I snapped. "On the rise Impossible! Once I defeated the Sarafan Lord their order crumbled into the dust. One battle was all it took to defeat the rest of them." I remembered that history like it was yesterday, my son Turel lead the charge on the failing Sarafan. He and his clan put them down like dogs. It was one of his earliest and greatest victories. How could the Sarafan be increasing in power and influence instead of degreasing? History had not been altered.

Or had it? Perhaps Raziel and I had altered events far more than even I could have imagined. But if that was so, why had I no new memories of the timeline?

"Killing the Sarafan Lord only made him into a Martyr." Vorador explained coldly crossing his arms. "Their order grew even more fanatical, and after they elected a new leader they began torturing Nosgoth again to fight the growing Vampire threat." The ancient leaded forward. "Your vampire threat." Angrily I smashed a fist into an open palm.

"How many times do I have to keep putting the Sarafan down?" They were like rats. I'd put down their crusade at least once already. My past self was busy raising vampires to the north, so I would have to deal with his myself. Still, someone had been altering the timeline behind my back and since dear Moebius was no longer with us, who did that leave?

The ancient regarded me callously, taking note of my new appearance. Since I was now an ancient like him, I was his equal in strength. I had had over thousand years to evolve my powers and while Vorador was older, he had been lounging in his mansion for very long periods of time. I had spent most of my after-life fighting.

"Their new political power originates from a cult called the Eye of God." Vorador explained. "Their base of power lies to the East, in the mining province of Wildendrof." He gestured briefly of towards the horizon "For the last few years, they've been using the Sarafan resources to herd humans away from the towns on the coast and into their new fortress city, under the guise of keeping them safe from your army. In reality, all they want is to keep them pinned in place to make them easier to control.

As for their success on the battlefield, they employ new magic that brings the power of sunlight itself to their aid. I've seen entire groups of vampires burned alive in an instant." None of this made sense .I had never heard to this cult before. Conquering Nosgoth had almost been to easy after I defeated the Sarafan lord. Who was meddling around in time behind my back?

"It seems I am in need of your assistance even more." I began with a smirk. Vorador crossed his arms, a stubborn look on his face.

"And pray tell what makes you think I would give aid to a monster like you?" I decided to ignore the comment.

"Because…" I began. "I have something you want." He chuckled deep in his throat and turned his back on me and began walking away.

"You have nothing I could ever desire Kain." He looked like he was about to disappear in a translocation spell so I added quickly.

"Not even your sire?" He paused in mid stride, silent as a statue, before slowly turning back to face me, suspicion deep rooted into his face. "I managed to rescue him from the clutches of the demon dimension." I told him smugly. "If you agree to help me, then I will tell you where I have hidden him." A scowl passed over his lips. Vorador was an honourable vampire, if I could get him to give his word; he could not betray it. Even if he did consider me lower than pond scum.

"How do I know you do not lie?" He asked after a moment.

"You'll just have to take my word for it. I have nothing to gain by betraying you." Vorador breathed out through his nose loudly, his eyes scanning me over for anything readable.

"Very well." He muttered after a moment. "If Janos is alive as you say, I will help you. But first…" He raised a talon. "Go to my mansion in the swamp, to the largest bed chamber. I have there something that you have to see. Once I have retrieved my master, I will join you there." I tried to read his features, to understand why he was making his request but could see nothing in his golden eyes.

"Agreed." We shook hands. "You will find Janos at the former headquarters of the Cabal, Sanctuary under the Blue Lady shop." Vorador nodded, recalling his sword into his hands with telekinesis before sheathing it.

"Well bargained and done." With that, he faded into nothing.

Over the centuries, Vorador's estate had been swallowed by the swamp and by the time I arrived at the gates of his elaborate mansion most of the outside walls were engulfed in thick vines. Most of the ground itself was a thick sludge and the dense canopy of the forest nearly blocked out all the sunlight. The gates had rusted solid, but one solid kick feared them open.

I could see instantly why Vorador had returned here. He had made no attempt at renovation, but this decadent and rotting hollow provided the perfect hiding place. I found that most of the passageways and corridors had either collapsed or had surrendered to the incessant demands of the tree roots, large entangled vines blocking my path. The last time I visited the ancient vampires home, it had been on my quest as a fledgling vampire to dispatch the circle. Moebius in the guise of the Oracle had dispatched me here, hoping to find an ally I would need to defeat Malek.

Looking upon it now, I could see no evidence of the brutality I had witnessed before hand. No torture devices or chains, even the room that served as his pantry large bare of restraints. It seemed unlikely that he would have cleared it all away, in any given era.

Perhaps, it occurred to me Vorador used all that just for show. While he would kill a human without a second thought, after getting to know his character I didn't see him as the type of person who went in for all blood shed.

The largest bed chamber was a room with a very high ceiling, concealed at the back of his abode. It had once be luxurious decorated, bur whatever had been here rotted away to leave a fell grey or brown pieces here and here. Curtains concealing windows ran across all the walls and the only light came from the silver candlestick on the bedside table. The bed itself was big enough for two and veiled, through which I could see someone laid out across it.

A frown formed on my face. What was this? Why would Vorador think this important to me? There was only one way to find out. Marching across the room, I approached the bed and simply pulled back the veil. Who I saw lying there made me freeze, almost literally.

It was Umah. The one I had scarified in a petty attempt to rule. Her hair let out of it's pony tail, flowing like a river of the pillows. The covers drawn over her lightly, highlighting her beautiful form. But that struck me the most was the rosy tint to her cheeks, indicating she had been fed recently.

She was alive!


	12. Chapter 12: Ewoden

EWODEN

Chapter 12: Vorador's mansion

* * *

-

Janos had acted as quickly as possible. Throwing the enveloping mists of a translocation spell around him, pushed on by the pain he could feel coming down the Whisper. Ewoden came with him, any notion of his own safety forfeited in that instant.

Sally was being burned by the light, the unbearable light. She was trying desperately to find a shadow to heal in, to hide; but there were one. She was alone, out in the open with the light bearing down on her; it's intense presence sending her staggering back screaming.

These new Sarafan were cruel in their tactics, never once raising their weapons to strike her down quickly. Instead they let her smoulder, letting her suffer, smiling at she sank to her knees still screaming.

Their smiles quickly disappeared as Janos came flying out of his spell, the fury of hell in him, knocking one of them to the ground with the light wings disappearing. The second reached for his sword, but never managed to draw it. A large battle axe came arching out of nowhere, sinking it's edge directly into his shoulder a thick wide spray of blood leaping into the air. Another axe came across his side, slicing through his armour with ease, sinking deep into his heart.

"Infidels!" The angel like Sarafan Janos had pinned to the ground screamed up, trying to free his arms. But the ancient vampires strength was too much for him and he could not reach his sword.

Janos wasted no words, instead lifted his pinned victim up and tossed him back across the street and into the side of the building. He hit his head as he fell and now lay on the floor unconscious. Turning, the ancient cast his spell again, enveloping all three of them in it's midst; thick white mist blinding all in the line off sight. As they faded away, a fresh patrol of Sarafan warriors came charging around the corner summoned by their comrades. But all they could do now was watch as Janos and the two others disappeared.

Sally screamed as the ancient vampire lowered her down to the floor as the spell delivered them safely back to Sanctuary. The light had burned her underneath her cloves. Most of her entire left side, including parts of her face had been badly scorched. The black marks extracting smoke running down her arm. He mouth was mouth, her fangs protruding out in pain. Her entire body pulsated with the beating of her heart, causing more pain each and every time.

"This burning is serious." Janos began, almost stating the obvious. "Her body can not heal the wounds fast enough." As sudden furlong look came over the ancients face. "There's little we can do." Ewoden looked up in absolute horror, his green eyes burning with an intense mixture of anger and sadness.

"No…" He managed to stutter. Janos kneeled down beside the female vampire, helping her into a more comfortable position. He shook his head.

"She needs more blood in order to heal her wounds, and I have neither the magic nor the reserves myself." Without a single moment of hesitation Ewoden uncoupled the leather strapped holding the Wraith armours chest plate to his torso, revealing the skin on his shoulders.

"Then let her taken mine." He stated, the fear of being drained that came naturally to most humans never so much as passing through his mind. Janos sighed.

"She needs more than you can spare." Ewoden's steadfast determined look reused to leave his face.

"I said, then let her take mine." In that single moment, Ewoden's own existence did not matter. Did not even register as a concern, his only instinct was to supply everything Sally would need in order to heal herself.

"They'll be no need for that." A voice stated from the darkness. Turning, Janos and the former Sarafan saw a familiar face standing nearby. A vampire, a good head and shoulders taller than Janos. His skin made pine green by a thin covering of fur, running from the tips of a pair of bat like ears to his toes. The golden eyes stood out against the darkness.

"Vorador!" Janos began with a happy smile as the first human to which the dark gift had been passed greatest his shire.

"So Kain did not lie." Vorador began, almost sounding surprised before looking over Sally's burnt body, studying the extent of the injuries. "These are bad wounds, I will do what I can." Without hesitation, he held one cloven hand over her; a white glow highlighting his outline as he began bestowing healing magic on the female vampire. Ewoden watched with held breath as some invisible force took hold of her body and she began shaking. Before his eyes he watched the burns covering her skin begin to recede and slowly disappear. But before she could fully heal, the light died away and Vorador's hands snapped back as if hit by a recoil. "I will have to summon blood for her to devour. But I can't do it so close to the Sarafan." He explained. Bending down, he picked her up off the floor and carried her in his arms. "We should leave, the city is not safe for our kind." Ewoden looked around as the familiar mists of a translocation spell engulfed them all and the empty vaults of the former Sanctuary of the Cabal disappeared. Just before they vanished complete, Janos quickly reached down and grabbed the canister. The spell lasted only a moment, before he found himself standing outside the gates of Vorador's estate.

* * *

-

In seven hundred years, the ancient vampire's home had decayed in ruins and rubble. The entangled roots of the swamp had all but claimed the walls and whatever remains of the fabulous wealth had vanished. The mansion before him now was dark and empty, devoid of any sort of nobility he had observed before. Perhaps it was the lack of sunlight that made it look so gloomy. Either way, this ruin was hardly anything like the extensive house Ewoden had been used to seeing.

Vorador hurried them inside the gates before shutting it behind them. Ewoden had been about to ask why, then a loud roaring echoed across the canopy of the forest, fixing them to the spot as it rolled through the air before dissipating.

"What sort of howl was that?" Janos breathed, unfamiliar with that inhuman screech either.

"After the collapse of the pillars, many strange creatures began appearing across the lands." Vorador explained as he hurried them all through the courtyard to the entrance. Most of the building around it had collapsed, the rubble entangled with vines that had crept in over and through the crumbling walls. "Mutations caused by corruption seeping into the land swarm through the swamp like rats." The door to the mansion had long since eroded away, leaving only an open archway as a way inside. Even once inside the hall, they could see that parts of the roof had fallen in, faint light beams falling to the floor through the holes. Having seen this place in it's entirety, Ewoden would almost have felt saddened by how much it had decayed away had his attention not been drawn by the female vampires plight.

He was still trying to speak to her through the Whisper, but she had blacked out because of the pain. Her mind was sleeping and he could not even be sure if she heard his messages.

Vorador lead them deep into his old abode, now devoid of any life whatever so ever; to one of his extensive libraries. It was about the only room like in his mansion that had retained some of it's former nobility. The gigantic collection of literature that had been Vorador's pride and joy was now gone, long since rotted away. The large curved set of windows that had had a magnificent view of Avernus Cathedral were gone as well, only an empty space remained opening out onto a crumbling balcony.

Avernus stood out in the distance. One of it's spires had fallen away over time and the extensive forest that had lain before it had died. Leaving only a blackened land almost devoid of life in it's place. As they entered, Janos closed the large wooden doors behind them; the hinges rusting and the wood rotten. Distant thunder and lighting rolled across the sky some distance away.

Looking out at it, Ewoden could be sure that this was not the Nosgoth he knew. This land was only a lifeless corpse. What could have happened to have caused such utter devastation? What could possibly have turned the lush world of Nosgoth into this?

Slowly, Vorador lowered Sally down onto a table and stepped away from her.

"Do you still remember the summoning spell I taught you?" Janos asked with a short coy smile. Vorador simply cast his shire a flat side glance. Turning back to Sally, he threw both hands out and evoked a spell; muttered the ancient language of the vampire race under his breath as the air around the injured female began to pulsate with the beating of a heart. Ewoden watched as the ancient summoned blood from ethereal space, leaving it to hang in the air like a small lake for a moment before letting it fall like rain upon Sally's injured body.

The former Sarafan watched as she drank what she could and the set seeped directly into her wounds. As time ticked away, the burns lessened and eventually disappeared altogether. Once the healing was complete, Vorador let his hands drop and the red rain ceased.

"There." He said with a sigh.

"Are you alright fledgling?" Janos asked as Sally pulled herself up to a sitting position. Slowly, she looked herself over breathing a sigh of relief she saw her skin unflawed once more.

Ewoden couldn't find the words. To much emotion was playing right over his head right now, so instead Sally just opened their link through the Whisper and then felt tears wheeling up in her eyes. All this concern, all that fear and then such intense relieve. Ewoden might never perhaps admit this out load, but it wad obvious that he did love her.

With one solid kick, the doors to the library went flying inward. Vorador turned sharply, one hand poised above the hilt of his sword before he saw Kain standing in the doorway. Anger was more than plain on the Scion's face, his golden eyes set face against Vorador; staring at the ancient with intense frustration in his eyes. In one hand he held the Reaver Blade, it's curved blade glinting bright with the lighting flashes coming from outside. The red banner that fell over his right shoulder fluttering violently in the breeze coming in.

"Vorador!" He almost shouted, leaping down the stairs to the ground level standing before the ancient vampire. "Explain yourself!" Vorador's expression was unreadable, he simply stood there in front of the sword wielding vampire calmly, matching his stare. "Explain this at once!"

"I thought she might get your undivided attention Kain, good to see that you aren't the one who holds all of the cards." Kain barred his fangs, his grip on the hilt of the Reaver tightening.

"And what Ace is this! Explain!" Vorador said nothing for a moment, looking amused at Kain's distress.

"I think we should leave them alone to argue about this." Janos suggested, seeing Kain clench and unclench the hand he always held the Reaver in. A hostile twitch in his eyes. "We'll be around the manor if you need us." Quickly, with Ewoden help Sally up; the three of them left closing the door behind them, half expecting to instantly hear the sounds of battle after it.


	13. Chapter 13: Kain

KAIN

CHAPTER 13

* * *

I was left, perhaps for the first time in my entire life, stunned into a vegetable state. My entire world collapsed around me, and all that was left was me and the female vampire lying asleep before me. No, this wasn't possible. It couldn't be, Impossible. Some trick, someone was trying to deceive me, manipulate me. Angrily, I drew the Soul Reaver. This illusion would not influence me. I would suffer it no longer. Brining the sword down, I prepared to decapitate this lie. 

As if it had it's own mind, my hands forced the blade to stop just before it nit her neck and I froze again. I…I couldn't do it. I couldn't kill her, not again. Even if it was an illusion, I just could not repeat that sin again. A feeling of nausea filling me nearly completely, I re-sheathed the blade across my back; involuntary tears wheeling up in the corners of my eyes. Here, personified was everything I had sacrificed; a grisly reminder of my idiocy.

In this sleeping form I could see Ariel's pain, the torment of all the people I had trodden over and even the lament of the land itself.

It too much, I had to look away.

_Isn't easy is it? Looking at yourself from the outside?- _Raziel asked, with an irritatingly humoured tone. For an instant, I was half convicted to throw the Reaver out the window in temper._ -Don't you dare.-_ My first born added dryly.

At the moment I had more important things to concern myself with then the comical quips Raziel could come up with. One thing stuck out in my mind like a hot iron.

Vorador had wanted me to see this. But why? If it was indeed an illusion, then what did he hope to gain by upsetting me. If it was true, if this was indeed the real Umah…no, I wasn't prepared to imagine that just yet.

Either way still, Vorador had some answers for me. Answers he was going to give, whether he was inclined to or not.

I could sense that he had returned to the mansion, presumably after collecting his sire. Presently, he was on his way to the library, along with several other people; most likely Janos and his companions. Setting my face into the best scowl I could manage, I marched out of the room, emotional pain unlike anything I'd ever experienced burning through me as I proceeded down the empty and derelict corridors of Vorador's ruin.

"Vorador!" I almost shouted after kicking the door to the library open before leaping down the stairs to the ground level standing before the ancient vampire. He had indeed returned and stood there with Janos and his two other friends. A smug smile had crossed his face. "Explain yourself!" Vorador's expression was nearly unreadable. I had drawn the Reaver in utter rage without even realizing it. "Explain this at once!"

"I thought she might get your undivided attention Kain, good to see that you aren't the one who holds all of the cards." He replied flatly. I barred his fangs, my grip on the hilt of the Reaver tightening.

"And what Ace is this! Explain!" Vorador said nothing for a moment, looking amused at my distress.

"I think we should leave them alone to argue about this." Janos suggested, seeing me clench and unclench the hand I held the Reaver in. A hostile twitch in my eyes. "We'll be around the manor if you need us." Quickly, with Ewoden helping Sally up; the three of them left closing the door behind them.

The slamming or the door resonated through the ruins of the library and Vorador remained silent for as long as it remained. When it finally did stop, he sighed out load.

"What you saw in that bed chamber was no illusion Kain." He assured me. "That was Umah, and she is; in the physical sense, alive."

"You lie." I told him cut with uncertainty in my eyes all the same. "I'm not proud of it, but Umah is dead; that I know to be an absolute fact." I strode forward, violating Vorador's personal space. "I watched her die at my own hand." Fury suddenly burning the ancient eyes, he struck me across the cheek with his talons, forcing me to stagger backwards. Snapping back, I hissed at him angrily. A hostile silence endured for a moment, the distant roll of thunder from far away hanging in the air like the blade of a guillotine.

"You believe you killed her Kain." Vorador continued. "And indeed you nearly did. What you knocked Umah into was not death, but rather a coma like state. Very similar to the condition you were in after your defeat by the Sarafan Lord." I bared my fangs. Every word hitting away at me like a war hammer. "After the conflict at the Hylden gate, I returned to Meridian to retrieve her body. I found her, incredible week but alive. Using my magic to keep her from desecrating any further, I took her back here to my mansion to recover."

"You righteous bastard." I confronted him, pushing all of this out of my head. "You really think I'll be fooled by this story, made to feel any worse than I already do?" I turned away from him. "Umah is dead Vorador, that illusion you created can not take her place." The green vampire hissed out through his nostrils.

"Whether you accept it or not Kain, the fact remains that is Umah." I did no reply to that. Vorador was obviously trying to sway me. His mind games were not as advanced as Moebius' had been, but still they had a unique sting of their own that I was determined to keep clear of.

"Tell me, why do the Sarafan gain more power?" I asked, violently forcing the conversation away from what the ancient intended. "You told me their influence would dissipate as soon as their lord was dead. And the history that I know proved tha theory right." Vorador obtained a small grin, as if celebrating some victory he had. Perhaps he found satisfaction in having left me sour after his tricks.

"As I told you, these new Sarafan are under the jurisdiction of that cult; the eye of god." He began, deciding to humour me for a while. "They wield a magic just as potent as the ward gates, sunlight itself. How they do this, I do not know. No vampire has gotten close enough to see and returned alive." If what Vorador said was true, there was only two ways humans would master a weapon as potent as sunlight to use against us. One, the Hylden showed them. Although that was unlikely, without the gate they could not operate in this era. Or two, which seemed more probably, it was _**him. **_

_-What do you know of this?-_ I asked Raziel inwardly. My first born was silent for a moment.

_-It's possible.-_ He admitted, contemplating_. - The Elder has access to many magic's. Harnessing sunlight as weapon might be within his power.-_ Raziel mused.

"And what of this cult?" I asked, anticipating my eldest's next inquiry. "Tell me, who are they?"

"Druids." Vorador replied flatly. "An order just as fanatical as the Sarafan in their dealings. They claim to be descendants of the original students of Bane." I remembered that name. Bane, the Druid; a member of the Circle of Nine. After the corruption set upon the pillars by Nupraptor the Mentalist, three of the guardians travelled to the foot of the northern mountains to begin work on their warped creation; Dark Eden. They were Dejoule the Energist, Anracothe the Alchemist and Bane the Druid. Combining their powers, they sent out a power wave of corruption that mutated everything it touched into a hideous parody of it's former self. I remember I had had to travel there to put a stop to that madness during my original quest. I had never heard of any human members of the circle having taken students though. I assumed that it had been an ancient practice. "Their fortress lies to the east, in the rich province of Willendorf. Their sway over the Ottmar line there is great." Vorador continued. "Using what remained of the Sarafan resources after the defeat of their lord, they quickly set themselves up as the new leaders of the crusade."

"Pah, humans and their politics." I sneered in contempt. Only a human could pathetic enough as to allow such things. In his empire, he had been the lord; the one commander above all. That had remained constant and as such, it had lasted for eons. "If…" I continued realizing something. "They are doing so well on the battlefield, then pray tell what happened to my army?" Vorador sank into one of the fe chairs that had not rotted away over time.

"After you killed the Sarafan lord, you went to the pillars to set up your new base of power." At least that part of history had not changed. "But the Sarafan Druids drove you out with sheer force and you were forced to retreat northwards, all the way to the ruins of Dark Eden itself." There could be no doubt in my mind now after that had been revealed. The time line had been altered. The only question that stuck in my mind was, if it had been changed; then why had my memories not changed along with it? Why could I not recall any of this ever happening? Had either myself or Raziel inadvertently done something to trigger this outcome, or perhaps it was the work of our enemies?

Well, no matter; right now I had more important things to think of. The Sarafan and their new sunlight magic would not be a problem once I restored the ancient vampires. Daylight could not hurt an ancient.

"Now, about our little deal." Vorador simply smiled smugly and held up the canister that Janos had brought with him.

"I can see why you need assistance." The ancient continued flatly. "This is a Hylden containment module. They use it to keep dangerous or potent substances from injecting those around it." He looked the canister over briefly. "Apparently they thought it best to keep whatever this thing is in something not even you could open." My patience was beginning to wane on this topic.

"Well, can you open it or not?"

"No." Was his prompt reply. "But…" Vorador quickly continued. "I know how you can."

"I'm listening."

He rose from his seat and crossed over to one of the book shelves. By now all the literature was gone, but instead of going for a non existent book he reached between the shelves to a small hidden panel. There was a sudden soft click and the shelves swung aside to reveal a metal panel. It was clearly of Hylden design, but I was unfamiliar with the technology used in it.

"Tell Me Vorador." I began as he read the directions on the runes. "During our battle, why did you cast the Reaver aside? Why did you not use it against me?" It was one of the many questions dogging me I wanted answered.

"While I created it, to me it is still your sword." He replied without looking back. "I would not degrade myself by using the blade you nearly destroyed Umah to win back." I scowled angrily at him. "The canister can not be opened by brute strength." He added getting back to the subject retracing a talon along the curved metal runes engraved in the surface. "It will only yield to the device used to put it together." Now we were getting somewhere.

"And just where is this device?" I asked. Vorador simply chuckled, turning back to face me.

"I have no idea. But…" He added quickly, reading my expression ."I should be able to find out, given enough time to research." Vorador paused for a moment, smiled and looked over towards the door. "You can stop eavesdropping now Ewoden, we aren't going to kill each other." He cast me a side glance. "Yet." I looked up as the former member of the Sarafan order poked his head through a crack in the large double door that served as the main entrance.

"Sorry, but I must inform you both of something." He began, stepped through the doorway completely.

"And what could a human tell me that could be of any worth?" I asked him contemptuously.

"Details about the Scion of Balance that perhaps even you may not know." Was the reply, without even so much as the slightest hint of fear I usually detected from those of his kind in my presence. In truth, I was mutely surprised he even knew of the title.

Briefly, he summed up a tale of an encounter with a werewolf; who in fact turned out to be Seroli smith, who gave him the Axes Havoc and Malice. At some point in my journey, I had used these axes myself. I was unsure of whether these weapons had already been used by me, or were destined to be. But what was more important was that this Seroli had predicted that the Scion of Balance was not the intended saviour of the vampires, but rather the liberator of all races. The question that stung me was, if the vampires themselves could not have foreseen my true purpose, then why had the Seroli?

"You!" Vorador exclaimed looked stunned. "You are the Scion of Balance?" I said nothing to him, instead I turned fully towards the human.

"If you are lying to me human…" He didn't reply. He simply countered my stare with one of his own, his green eyes as hard as emeralds behind the mess of red hair.

"Of all the people in the world." Vorador continued, narrowing his eyes at me. "You are the last person I ever expected to be Scion of Balance."

"You were Seroli once Vorador." I began, turning back to him. "What do you know of these tales they told?" The ancient was silent for a moment.

"The Seroli seers were never taken seriously, by any race." He admitted. "Neither Hylden nor Vampire would believe anything they predicted, even when so many times it proved true."

"Well they have my part in destiny correct." This perhaps might be a lead as to what I needed to do. If the Seroli seers did truly predict the Scion's true purpose, then perhaps a little bit of a research was in order. Vorador stood silently for a moment, his yellow eyes doing some calculating as in his mind he hurried to assemble some thoughts.

"Very well Kain, I'll make you another deal." He announced looking up. I narrowed an eye sceptically at him. "I'll see if I can find the location of the device needed to open the canister, and Ewoden here can see what he can dig up on the Seroli Seers." I failed to see what use this human could be off, but I didn't say anything. "In return, I need you to go to Willendorf and investigate this Druid Cult for me."

"You know I don't like doing peoples errands for them." I warned him, reminding him of my distaste for fetch and carry quests. Vorador just shrugged.

"You're getting something in return aren't you?"

_It would be in our best interests to investigate these Druids anyway-_ Raziel told me. He was right. Perhaps if I paid them a visit, I could learn exactly what had happened to change the timeline so much.

"Very well."

Vorador and I had made an agreement. Tomorrow I would set out to the east, to the mining province of Willendorf. Until that time, I was free to use the manor to pass the time. However, there was one thing I knew had to be done here that could not avoided.

It was later that night when I summoned Janos Audron to me. I stood on the edge of a balcony overlooking Vorador's garden at the back of the estate when the ancient finally answered my call. He had had time to dress himself in something far more fitting then the rags I had found him in, a black and golden robe with two drapes running down the side of each shoulder over his chest.

"You wish to speak to me Kain?" He asked, folding his wings as he landed nearby. He had also had time to feed more on the blood he had summoned through magic. He no longer gave over the impression of weakness. Now he seemed to have some of his age old power back.

"Yes." I replied simply turning to face him.

_-Go easy on him Kain-_ Raziel requested of me. _–You are about to shatter some of his most deep rooted beliefs.-_ I ignored his sentimentally and approached the ancient vampire.

"Janos, you have certain misconceptions that have to be removed." If I was going to use his help in the future, then he had to know the truth; which for him was not going to be easy.

"Misconceptions?" Janos repeated, looking surprised. "What sort of misconceptions?" I was silent for a moment as I thought up a decent way reply.

"Let me ask you this…" I continued raising a talon. "Who are our true enemies?" The winged ancient actually looked confused that I should ask such question.

"The Hylden of course." Was his sure reply. Slowly I shook my head, folding my arms.

"I'm afraid not Audron." He stared at me with wide, utterly confused eyes. "The Hylden, while a threat, are not our immediate concern."

"What in Nosgoth are you taking about Kain?"

"You would make the Hylden out to be origin of all evil…" I began, realizing despite Raziel's protects that a soft hand would not be of any use here. If I was going to get the message across then I needed to hammer it into him. "Yet you; and your race were the ones who behaved like monsters in the wars between you." Janos opened his mouth to protest. "Don't argue with me Audron, I know full well it was the vampires who started the wars; not the Hylden."

"It was a crusade. Our faith told us what needed to be done. A holy war." He managed to reply, anger creeping onto his features.

"Not so different from the purges of the Sarafan I should imagine." I didn't let him get a word in. "The Hylden simply didn't follow the ways of your god and so you attacked, decimating their population simply because they did not believe in the wheel of fate."

"All are bound to the wheel Kain." Janos snapped. "Even those who do not wish to hear it."

"Oh I know that. All are prisoners of that lie, trapped in never ending circle."

"Lie!" Audron nearly burst out. "You dare profane our ancient faith with this blasphemy!"

"I dare because what you were taught, what all of your race where taught was a falsehood. A method of control created by a being who thrived on utter ignorance." In anger, Janos took a swing at me. I grabbed his fist before smashing me knee into his stomach. Crying out, he collapsed to his hands. "There you go Janos, with the branded emblem of all religion. Whenever someone questions your believes, your instinctive reaction is to try and hurt them." Slowly I drew the Reaver and placed the tip against his back, he froze, as if afraid I was about to impale him on it. However I had other ideas. The purifying energy of the Soul Reaver shot through his body, removing the veil that covered the sight of most other souls. The sudden rush through his body was unlike anything he had ever experienced before as Janos gasped out load. After a moment had passed, I put the Reaver back in its place.

What I had transferred to him was more than the purifying effect of the sword. I had also given him a glimpse at my memories, or more specifically; at my recollection of the Elder God. He saw the hideous, multi-tentacle form and the truth of the Wheel of Fate. He saw that destiny beheld those who worshiped it, their souls sucked down to sustain that monstrous creature. Then the beast had the audacity to claim god hood, controlling the vampires through his own religion. If anyone ever questioned the faith, they were dealt with harshly.

"No." He began, clutching the sides of his head. "No…it's a lie. God loves us….he does…!" I could now he was being shown my fight with the Elder God itself and now it had promised, like both the Sarafan and the Hylden to destroy all vampires in Nosgoth. Throughout everything, Janos had believed his god to be with them; helping their people, giving them strength. Yet all this time, it had been working with their enemies; trying to bring about their extinction. And all because their immortality stopped their souls from being absorbed into its body. Janos tried to force it back, but eventually the tears won out and he began to weep. The despair was almost too much for him to take in.

"Whether or not you choose to believe what you have seen is of little importance to me." I told him, purposely showing no remorse in my voice. "But if you want to keep your heart inside its chest, you need to know the truth."

"All is in darkness. God himself wants us dead." Janos wept. Muttering, I pulled him roughly to his feet.

"What you and your race worshipped was not God Audron, only a voice claiming to be it." I gestured to the Reaver on my back. "I've made it bleed Janos, it's a living creature; which means it can be killed. But first, I need to know; when did it first start talking to your people?" Janos remained silent, his tears flowing down his cheeks. "Tell me." Still he said nothing, a crumpled shell of his former self. Perhaps I had been just a little too direct. Right now, he probably ready to kill himself. "Janos, look at me." Slowly, he raised his eyes to look directly at me. "There's still hope. If I can get the canister open, if I can cure out people, then we can finally glide in the light again; wash in the seas and rivers and fly away from the Sarafan. We won't have to kill humans to stay alive anymore." Still he remained stationary. "Our females can have children again!" That caught his attention.

"What good is that?" Audron asked miserably. "Without immortally, we'd get dragged down to feed that liar sooner or later."

"Not if we kill him first."

"And how do you plan to kill something that runs from one tip of Nosgoth to the other?" That was a fair question. I had been able to injure it at one point, but since its body stretched through the underground of the land; it seemed like an impossible task to kill all of it.

"I'll find a way." I replied. "Somehow, I'll find a way."


	14. Chapter 14: Ewoden

CHAPTER 14

EWODEN

* * *

Kain had left the mansion some time ago, and Ewoden was not long after in his departure. Vorador had given him his own quest. He was to travel north and then when he reached the ridge of mountains, he would turn east. According to the ancient vampires directions, after a few miles he would come across the ruins of an old city. Vorador had heard rumours that It was there that Werewolves beset travellers.

"Old city?" Ewoden repeated, looking confused as Vorador pointed to the far north eastern region of Nosgoth.

"The ruined kingdom of King William the Just." The ancient explained.

"Who?" Ewoden asked looked slightly confused.

"After your time." Vorador continued with a short grin. The map he had laid out across the table showed a very different Nosgoth to the one the former Sarafan was used to. There were several cities, towns and settlements in area where he knew were none. Then again, after seven hundred years he supposed there would.

After gathering what supplies he could from the nearby settlements without drawing too much attention to himself, Ewoden began north. He was warned by Vorador to avoid the roads. Bandits often waited in the wilderness and Sarafan patrols had set up checkpoints through most of Nosgoth. And the vampire king lay to the North was well, and he was not as human as the ones he had met seemed. Armed with Havoc, Malice, his Box and a quiver full of arrows Ewoden left the mansion and began northwards through the swamp.

This region had not been pleasant when he first saw it, but in this new era it seemed even more repulsive. All the trees were either dead or dying, vegetation of all kinds lying in rotting rows. The stink from the scummy water flowing through the dead roots was overpowering, and the former Sarafan was glad when he finally cleared the edge of the trees and walked out into open countryside.

Although that sight wasn't picturesque either. Where Ewoden expected to see rolling green fields, he found himself staring out across s grey and scared land. The thick, never ending expanse of an overcast thunderstorm overhead; the land was carpeted by darkness. It looked like hardly anything new or green had grown in Nosgoth for at least a hundred years.

As he began down a slope, his compass directing him ever north; a faint flicker in the corner of his eye was brought to his attention. The average traveller would pass it off a trick of the light, but Ewoden was experienced enough to know better. Something, very skilled in stealth was following him; and he had a faint idea what. Grinning, he turned and carried on as if he hadn't noticed it.

On this trip, he had decided to take his Sarafan armour with him and leave the Wraith armour with Vorador. It would do well to keep the knight façade up, it might allow him free passage through Order controlled territory and other human settlements. And creatures of the night would be less inclined to attack a Sarafan than an ordinary human.

Days came and went, and all the while Ewoden carried on northwards towards the ridge of mountains that formed the border of Nosgoth. Beyond those lay an expansive, seemingly never ending sheet of ice. Still far away from that point, the former Sarafan stopped onto to refill his water skin from streams and to hunt animals when he noticed his supplies getting a little low.

On the fifth day, Ewoden set up camp on the banks of a large river that flowed southward. He close that clearing because he could see anything that might try to approach in any direction, and he kept one of his Axes close by at all times. The remains of a rabbit lay picked clean of flesh by the skin, the bones charred from the camp fire.

Ewoden had been lucky to find a wayside tavern. It Hadn't been the friendliest place in the world, but it did sell good Mead. That had kept the chill out of his bones for at least a while. Finishing off his small meal, he looked up towards the sky. The sun had already set, and the full moon was high in the sky.

That made him think. Seroli were simply cursed humans. One could only tell they were Werewolves when they changed at the sight of the full moon. Even if he would present himself as their ally, they would be unlikely to reveal themselves willingly, and catching them in their changed state was completely out of the question. Still, he supposed something would come up. He wished now he'd asked more questions from that Edward character when he met him.

A distant howling caught his attention. Realizing the obvious, he cursed and reached for his Axe. The howl came again, only this time from much closer. Without warning, a sudden black shape came crashing through a pair of dead trees, soured past the Former Sarafan and landed with a loud thud nearby. Turning, Ewoden confronted the creature with one hand on the Axe Malice and the other ready to cast a spell.

Basically humanoid, this creature had thick black fur covering it's entire and canine head with a long snout and wet nose, a pair of pointed ears lanced upwards. A thick mane of wet dog like fur hung down it's back a long busy tail. Each finger and toe had a long, jet black claw on it and seemed sharpened to perfection. It's golden yellow eyes latched onto the human, filled with hunger and animalistic rage. Slowly it's lips parted and Ewoden got a close up look of it's razor like teeth.

It howled into the air before charging with intense speed. Ewoden barley had enough time to dodge out of the way before it came at him again, mouth opened wide ready to snap shut. Throwing his free hand forwards, Ewoden cast a fire ball spell and sent the creature tumbling into the river.

Now it was fully in the moonlight, he could see what he suspected. It was a Werewolf. During the ancient war, the Seroli had been allies of the Vampires. When the Hylden were banished, they inflicted the Seroli with a curse as well. One as equally ironic as the one they gave the vampires.

The Seroli humans were worshippers of a moon goddess and revered the wolf for it's strength and speed. To this end, their curse caused them to mutate into flesh hungry monsters whenever the moon reached it's zenith.

Well, he found them at least. Now what?

There was a brief swirl of darkness by his side. Glancing in that direction, to no surprise he found Sally standing there already in a fighting stance, a dagger in each hand.

"There was no need to follow me from a distance." He told her as the wolf reared itself up on it's hind legs, the claws on it's forelimbs flashing in the moonlight. "I would have let you come anyway." Sally didn't looked in his direction, but simply gained a smile instead. The Werewolf let it's head roll back and eclipsing the full moon behind it, howled into the air before tearing back towards them; it's eyes glowing bright yellow. The two of them darted out of the way as it shot through as he went by, Ewoden swung his axe down the side souring a hit across it's leg. Sally did the same, scaring it through the fur on the left temple.

Screeching, the wolf shot away from them and disappeared into the foliage. Everything else remained silent, yet the pair could still hear it's panting as it silently circled around them.

Ewoden trailed his hands up and wrote arcane runes in the air with his finger, calling for a spell; one that bathed nearly everything around them in a magical light. Even so, the extra illumination did not reveal the creature. It kept outside the circle of light and all they caught of it's super fast form were momentary glimpses of fur amongst the undergrowth.

Then with a sudden howl, it darted straight at them from behind. Acting on instincts, Sally turned and cast a fire ball spell. Leaping into the air, the wolf avoided the spell and came down hard; claws out stretched and mouth wide open as it came towards her.

Shoving her aside, Ewoden took her place as the wolfs victim and two of them tackled each other as they slammed to the ground; rolling across the sands before sliding into the river water. Sally looked back to see what was happened, but all she could make out amongst a chaos of foam and splashing with momentarily glints of the bladed edge of an axe and the sharp dagger like claws. She couldn't go in to help him, the mere touch of that water would dissolve her body.

Suddenly, an armoured leg thrust itself forward and the wolf was send howling with a kick into the air before landing with an echoing thud against the ground. Ewoden roughly pulled himself up, the armour on his leg arm torn completely off and scratch marks carved down his cheat plate.

Loosing strength, he almost collapsed back into the water but managed to support his weight on the axe Malice.

"Is it dead?" She asked him. As if in answer, the wolf grunted and pulled itself up in an almost sitting like position. Ewoden had scoured a few hits as well. Blood was matting the fur on the side of it's face.

Bringing a hand up, Ewoden traced more runes in the air with two fingers before throwing his hand forward; a steady red glow highlighting his entire body. The wolf howled into the air and the charged, it's form blurring as it moved so fast. Before he reached the former Sarafan however, the glow around Ewoden body flowed directly down his arm and into Malice. This was a magic trick he had picked up not from Janos, but from the Order. But concentrated their rage in an attack, a primitive but destructive form of magic could be forced into the weapon of their choice.

Swinging the axe up in an arch, the former Sarafan knight landed a colossal blow across the wolf's chin, blood sent flying into the air. Carving a deep scar across it's chest, Ewoden was hi by the recoil of his own attack. With not enough strength left to withstand, the backlash of magic threw him roughly down back into the water.

Thankfully the wolf was far worse off. The wounds it had suffered were clearly slowing it down and it was obviously it a good deal of pain. Forcing it's way back to it's feet, with hardly any strength left, it howled once again before turning tail and almost galloping off in the other direction; disappearing through the undergrowth. The sounds of it's running fading into the distance.

Ewoden pulled himself up onto the beech, grunting in annoyance. He'd suffered worse during the campaigns of the Sarafan. He was naturally combat hardened and knew how to concentrate to bloat out pain.

Sally nearly went to help him up, but had to recoil went the tips of her fingers burnt at the touch of his water logged armour.

"There's a towel and a few wrappings in my supplies." Ewoden told her and nearly instantly she came back with the objects he needed After drying himself and his armour off as best he could, he turned to apply the wrappings to the many claws marks on his arms and chest. First he applied a salve made from crushed leaves of a certain plant. They helped to ward off infection, still he was going to have a good few scars later on. He looked down at his left arm, where the wolf had sunken it's teeth into his flesh. He decided it was better not to let Sally see that. The former Sarafan bandaged himself up quickly to hide it from sight.

Still he was too late, Sally had seen it. Quickly she grabbed his arm and yanked it into plain sight. The teeth marks in the flesh were more than clear.

There was one thing the Seroli curse had in common with that of the vampires. One who was bitten by a werewolf, would given time become one themselves.


	15. Chapter 15: Kain

Kain

Chapter 15

* * *

And so I returned to the kingdom that had once held my alliance. In my thirty years as a human, a noble of the town of Coorhagen; my family was loyal to the throne of the Ottmar line of Willendorf. During my first quest, I needed to rally the present king to fight the advancing army of the Nemesis from the north. Saving the princess' soul from the mad toy maker Elzevir, I managed to rally the so called 'army of the last hope' Well, that had been my original history, now that events had been dramatically altered that had not come to pass.

Now under the control of the Sarafan, or ultimately the Druids of Bane, Willendorf was now a world unto itself. Sarafan banners fluttered in the breeze everywhere I looked and the crowning insult was hanging from the top of the main castle keep, a giant banner with large eye staring out across the land. The eye of god.

Not only had the island fortress that served as the Ottmar seat of power been engulfed in battlements, but the township to the east had also been greatly enhanced in defence. Sarafan, a great deal more than I was expecting were everywhere but thankfully, these new Solar powered kind did not seem to be able to detect my kind. Apparently after the Hylden's reach into Nosgoth had been severed so had all the Glyph magic, and for this was extremely glad.

A quick patrol around the outer walls showed that scaling it directly would not be an option, and it would also be in my best interest to pass through the city in a disguise. Humans were often more inclined to reveal information if they their conversationalist looked human himself.

With a faint tingle of de-ja-vu, I engulfed by the spell Beguile, which I had used to gain entry into humans dwellings before. It did not physically alter my form; rather it affected those around me. Instead of seeing an ancient evolved vampire, all they saw was a trader making his way into town.

As I approached the large gate that marked the entrance, I was stopped by two of the guards. They looked like ordinary Sarafan, lacking the white armour of light wielding type Vorador had told me to look out for.

"State your business." One of them began, his gauntlet on the hilt of his blade.

"Duncan of Ducket's traders." I began, my magic altering my voice to leave them to inclination of who I was. The name and business I was under the guile of was simply something I remembered hearing in my travels. "Here to see the Merchant's Guild on an important matter." The two Sarafan shot each other a glance.

"What matter?" The second asked, leaning closer. I could see his utterly dirty face through the visor of his helm.

"I'm sorry gent's, that's privileged information. I can't go around alerting da competition now can I?" Perhaps I was laying on the exaggerated accent a bit thick, but luckily these two guard dogs did not appear too bright and they stepped aside.

"Open the gate; got another one." One of them called up to the gate house above and with a loud clanking, the portcullis blocking the way rose upwards.

The last time I had been in Willendorf, I found it a simple place, houses made frm wood and straw, mud lining the streets with dingy taverns on every corner. In the past two hundred years, quite a few alterations had been made. Instead of finding myself waist deep in mud, the ground was a solid brick and tall stone houses lining the streets met my eyes. By comparison, this city would have done well to compete with the Upper class district of Meridian. I looked up as I walked through a hustling crowd of merchants and traders in the entrance square to see an Aqueduct running directly across from one building to another.

"Fresh poultry; cut and cleaned today!" Where amongst some of the things I could hear the battering people around me calling. It became clear what the Sarafan were doing here all of a sudden. After the Gylph magic disappeared, most of the city of Meridian fell into Chaos. Here, they were trying to re-create that sprawling metropolis. I could also see construction work beginning on an advanced sewer system and a few other tall, advanced and equally grey buildings.

I wandered around until I found the docks. Like the rest of the city this two was also heavily guarded as giant ships and fraters carrying salvaged stone, metal and other valuables from the ruin of Meridian.

"Look Evan, if I've told you's once I've told you's a thousand times not ta read dat propaganda." An old, rusty toned and heavily accented voice nearby stated and I stopped in a dark corner to listen. Eventually I caught sight of two men standing on the edge of a pier jutting out from the dark waters; not too far from a tavern where fishermen were going in an out freely I noticed. The two of them were commoners, one an old man with a thick grey beard and the other barley twenty. The younger had a rolled parchment in his hands. A collection of fishing equipment was stacking nearby and a small rowing boat tied to the end of the jetty.

"It's not propaganda Uncle; it's simply an information sheet." The boy replied, his legs hanging off the edge towards the water. "It just tells us what's happening in the world and what we should do to prepare."

"Look, who's written that thing?" The elder asked, rolling up a fishing net before hanging it over his shoulder.

"The Sarafan census office." The boy replied flatly, unrolling the parchment to have another read.

"What I tell you? The Sarafan wrote it, and they only tell you's what they want's ya ta' know 'bout."

"The Druids are different from the Sarafan lord." The boy persisted. Druids? Now this conversation took a little more interesting tone. "Thing's are better then they were before…"

"And how long'da ya think'll stay like it? The Sarafan promised many things before, they never delivered." The old man asked sceptically, before heading over towards the tavern, disappearing under a large canvus drape that overhung the entrance. "Remember the clean the hooks boy!" He called back.

The young man simply sighed angrily before pushing his piece of paper into his pocket and getting to work.

At first I made sure that he was alone, that there were no Sarafan patrols coming, before I violently yanked him off his feet using Telekinesis and pinned him against the wall. He yelped out in pain, until I clamped a hand over his mouth to silence him.

"Cry out, and you will die." I told him, letting my eyes spear their natural flaxen yellow colour. He hung there, pinned to the wall by some invisible force in horror. "Now, tell me of the Druids that control the Sarafan." He was a gibbering mess but the information I managed to retrieve from him was most helpful. According to his words, these Druids were indeed an order founded by Bane himself. After the Sarafan lord died, their leader became the new head of the Sarafan by supplanting all the other candidates, taking control of the vengeful soldiers and directing their anger solely at me, or rather the younger me at work near Dark Eden.

As for their new authority in this city, the latest ruler of the Ottmar line was a member of their order and offered them his territory from which to work from. However, his daughter was rumoured to be heading up a rival faction to drive them out.

He didn't know anything more, which of course, made him disposable. Before he could so much as yell, I sank my fangs into his neck and drank. His face turned white as he was slowly drained his eyes rolled back and his arms fell limp and within moments he was dead. Without hesitation, I simply tossed his body off the end of the pier and into the water. It sank, disappearing without a trace.

Perhaps it would be wise to pay this Princess of Willendorf a short visit?- Raziel asked me. I agreed. If she truly was trying to evict the Sarafan from the city, she might be inclined to reveal more information than that urchin could.

From experience, I knew it would be unlikely they would let a trader into the interior citadel. I needed to be appear to be of noble blood in order to pass. Altering the Beguile spell, the perception of physical presence altered from that of a lowly fish merchant to the noble man I had once been.

It felt odd, I admit, to appear as I once had. My human form, with its pale skin and blonde hair; so familiar yet distant at the same time. It was a disturbing feeling. Once this was accomplished, I paused to give myself a look at my reflection in the window of a closed shop. It bothered me that despite my past nobility I did not appear quite regal enough. Pausing long enough to adjust a few features, such as better looking clothes, a taller stance and a drape over my left shoulder.

Looking down, I saw the piece of parchment that young fool had been hanging onto laying at my feet. Picking it up, I glanced briefly over the words.

(Rejoice, for wheel is finally turning) Was printed in big black letters at the top. The Wheal? The Wheal of fate? I carried on reading. (The eye of god looks down on us all as we are blessed, for the final hour of the vampire menace has come.) Strangely, there was little else in this than religious preaching.

I growled to myself. I knew from long experience that if someone told a lie often enough and loudly enough, people would start to believe it. Clearly this was what the Druids were using to convert the humans of Nosgoth to their cause, and I suspected, what the Elder had done to claim dominance of the ancient vampires. Clenching a fist around the parchment, I set it alight with a fireball spell before marching off; leaving the charred remains smouldering on the floor.

People now let me pass I walked past, fear incited in their eyes as they caught sight of the Sarafan emblem I had made them seen placed on my chest. I disliked using their icon, but it clearly demanded respect in this place.

Approaching the gates that lead into the towering keep, the two sunlight Sarafan snapped to attention as I past, giving them a contempt full glare I strode on.

"Honestly, you'd think they engineered this whole situation just to order us around." A noble told his companion grumpily as the two of them walked out the main castle doors into the courtyard. "Ah, you must be Lord Kain." He stated, seeing my march across the yard towards the door. I stared at him with wide eyes. That had caught me completely off guard, I was almost about to reach for the invisible Reaver on my back. "The noble from Coorhagen, correct?" I nodded slowly. Unsure of what to make of this, I stood there a little confused.

"You've been expecting me?" The noble nodded enthusiastically.

"Yes, Yes; her majesty the Princess Alicia was informed of your coming a short time ago." He replied, beckoningly me to follow me. "I do hope trade negotiations between the west and east go well for you, I've been told the Sarafan are attempting a uniting of the entire southern Nosgothic coastline against the northern vampires." Was the added foot note as he and his knight lead me through the well furbished halls and corridors of the Castle Keep. Surprisingly, I saw very few Sarafan knights standing guard inside. Taking their place were the Willendorf militia, knights themselves but clad in pure white armour, their shields depicting the monarchy symbol; the golden lion. "My lady, the Lord Kain." I was announced as the doors to a grand chamber were opened and I was bid welcome into it.

The room was as large as Vorador's library, with two grand crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. A grand window to the left of opened out onto a balcony, which itself had a fine view of the city itself. They placed was very well furbished, with engraved oak tables and chairs placed near and there. At the far end of the room was a bed with a silk bed. Standing there in wait for us, was I suspect the Princess of Willendorf. She was about twenty it seemed, with dark brown hair and black eyes. She was dressed quite simply for a princess, in a simple dress I might expect from the wife of a merchant.

"Very well, you may leave us." The two at my side bowed, before excusing themselves, shutting the door behind them, I waited for a moment to see if they were not listening at the key hole for our views, and indeed that there was no one hidden in the walls. As if sensing my concern, the girl smiled coyly. "No one will spy on you vampire, it is quite safe for you to assume your natural form here." She told me. I stared her down, as if trying to see what lay beyond the obvious façade of this human and saw nothing.

And so I did as I was requested, I let the form of Beguile go and she saw me as I was really was. A good dealer taller and stronger than her, capable of tearing her fragile body apart in an instant.

"You have my attention girl; now tell me what it is you want?" The girl remained perfectly still; a small smile crossed her face.

"I want many things." She told me. "But the one that is most importance, involves you Scion of Balance." How did humans keep knowing that title? I asked myself narrowing an eye at her.

"She knows that title because I told her Kain." Another voice accounted. Looking up towards a balcony that lined the inner wall, I saw a very familiar figure standing there. Clearly a Hylden with large bony structures lancing out the back of the shoulder blades. The feet had strange heals that tapered off in a spike at the end, two shot toes at the front. Unlike most other Hylden, this one had a thick stream of dirty brown hair down between it's large ears. It's physical appears was clearly that of a female, dressed on in short rags hiding her less than presentable parts.

I knew this creature at once, for our paths had crossed once before.

"Ah yes, Vorador's mysterious Seer." I began with a short grin. "I have always wondered if you survived that fire." The women smiled grimly.

"I told you, my fates lies along a different path. And now, you, I and the Princess here, have business to discuss."


	16. Chapter 16: Ewoden

CHAPTER 16

EWODEN

* * *

Stahlberg was a small, near invisible settlement nestled deep the mountain rage that formed Nosgoth's northern border. The town was little more than ruins, inhabited only by a small community of farmers and their families. The wall surrounding the place had lost since crumbled away and most of the buildings were rotted. Still, Ewoden found this place actually heart lifting. Even in their most incognisant outpost, the Sarafan would fly their banners high to let their enemies know how close to death they where, but not a single flag fluttered anywhere.

Neither he, nor Sally had spoke about the bite he had suffered from the werewolf. There was no way to tell for certain if he was infected and nothing to do if he was. The bite hadn't been that bad, so there was a distinct possibility nothing would happen on the next full moon.

Wandering into town, Ewoden left his armour with Sally. He didn't want to intimidate people here, and it would make him prone to attacks by thugs with a vendetta against the order. That had happened once before.

"The weapon smiths?" A vendor repeated, looking up at the former Sarafan. Looking for information, Ewoden had wandered into a small market in the middle of town. The vendor here was a travelling merchant who'd settled down here after the wars broke out. His stock were swords and other weapons, so Ewoden guessed if anyone knew about the Seroli it would be him. "Ah yes, I have a fine selection of Seroli weapons here as it happens. Here's an example." The old, bent man reached to the wooden crates behind him and withdrew an especially good long sword. It was of very good quality, with a perfectly straight blade and golden handle, painstakingly engraved with runes that looked ancient vampiric. "That's real gold in the handle there, expert work." He added, handing the weapon over for an inspection. At once he could tell it was made out of the same material as the Axes Havoc and Malice. Yes, this was Seroli work all right.

"Yes, a fine weapon. Even Order quality." The vendor chuckled.

"I hope not. My business is doing bad as it is."

"I don't suppose you can tell me from where you acquired this piece?"

"No, I don't think I can." The old man replied, his tone suddenly turning flat and hostile. "I can't go blabbing my trade secrets to anyone who takes an interest, now if you excuse me I'm a very busy man, good day." He snatched the sword back, and then refused service.

None of the other merchants at the market were very helpful after that either. Word of mouth spread fast in a small community like this, and very quickly everyone seemed to know that there was someone asking questions. They wouldn't even answer his queries about the ruins of an old city to the north of their settlement, even know there more than visible from the town itself.

"When's the next full moon?" Sally asked when Ewoden returned to the abandoned building where the female vampire was waiting out the sunlight. It was an old barn next to a crumbling farmhouse on the outskirts of town.

"There's enough moon tonight to be considered full." The former Sarafan replied. "Although confronting another Seroli in its wolf form is probably not a good idea." Vorador's sources had informed them at werewolves had been spotted amongst the northern ruins themselves, so perhaps there might be a good place to start looking.

Ewoden was in the process of putting his armour back on when the full moon began rising. As the moonlight full through the broken windows and fell upon him, he paused in his work and shivered violently. Something felt strange, some faint tingling accompanied by a strange yearning he could not explain.

"You alright?" Sally asked. Ewoden shook his head, before picking up the rest of his equipment and strapping it onto the carrier hooks on his armour. He stopped however, seemingly suddenly alert and apprehensive.

To Sally's surprise, he sniffed the air like an animal before looking out the window back towards town. Even from here, they could see the flickering lights of torches moving steadily away towards the north. It was quite a large crowd as well, by no means the entire town's population but numbering at least twenty.

"Now where are they going?" Ewoden asked out load, peering out the window. Circling around town, the former Sarafan and the female vampire followed them, but at a safe distance in case there were any stragglers keeping an eye out for trespassers. The group passed through the towering peeks of two mountains of either side of a ravine before they reached the ruins there. Obviously this place had once been a great and powerful kingdom, but now everything was rumbling down towards the ground. The remains of a giant metal statue acting as a gate stood above, most of it now gone. All that remains were a pair of legs reaching up into the sky.

"I hope they have something better to hunt this time." They managed to hear one of their number say when they crept close enough, using the crumbling wall to shield themselves from view. "Rabbits are nice and all, but they aren't very satisfying. And the bones get stuck in the teeth."

"I heard they managed to round by a few Deer." Another replied. Someone clapped their hands, rubbing them together in glee.

"Now that's more like it." He hesitated. "Deer? I didn't think there were any left in the north."

"There aren't, they had to bring a few from the…." By then, the two conversing had moved on out of ear shot. Instead of risking his neck by peaking around the edge of the wall to see what was happening, Ewoden simply let one of his Axes trail out and he watched away as happening in the reflection in the metal. If he was lucky, the two of them could remain completely unnoticeable.

The crowd had settled into a disorganized circle in the centre of what had obviously been a town square at some point. To his surprise, standing at the front was the market vendor with which he had conversed with earlier. He had changed out of the clothes had been wearing earlier into what looked like a white robe priests would wear.

"Is everyone here?" He asked the crowd, then began counting heads, gesturing to each one with a finger. "Ah good, that's all of you." He rubbed his hands together. "Alright then, we can start. The hunt tonight, you'll all be pleased to hear, are about ten forest Deer which I let loose in the ruins about an hour ago." The crowd began chattered amongst itself, before they were silenced when the vendor raised his hand to grab their attention. "To make up for the number of those here, a large number of flows such as pheasants, chickens and turkey were released as well. So no one's going to go away empty handed." He paused. "So that means I don't want to see any fights breaking out over food….Evan.." His tone was stern, and his gaze was directed towards several young men at the front, who looked away sheepishly. One of them looked down at his feet. Ewoden felt that tingle again, only this time he could tell were it was coming from.

Looking up, he saw the full moon almost directly above them.

"I think we should go." Sally told him. Ewoden looked back towards the crowd, seeing several of them removed their clothes and stand naked even in the company of their friends and neighbours. This strange behaviour would have been considered ludicrous, had the second event not taken place.

They began howling up towards the sky, arms outstretched as if to accept the moonlight.

"The mother of night watches from above, and we are reborn." The vendor proclaimed in a very sermon type voice before he began undergoing his own transformation. Ewoden watched in a strange sense of wonder as thick black fur, began running all over their bodies. First from their shoulders, spreading down their backs and once it reached their legs; a thick busy tail began growing downwards. Their face twisted and snouts began replacing noses.

As utterly horrific as this transformation was, the former Sarafan was transfixed in wonder. He could see the thick muscles under the fur as they assumed the guise of the wolf. In this form they were powerful, agile and strong. As a group the werewolves were invincible and he would be lying if he said that the power they wielded wasn't entirely undesirable.

It was Sally tugging at his arm that forced him to come back to reality.

"Your eyes!" She told him, pointing toward him with a horrified expression on her face. He blinked in confusion, before pulling his axe up to face level so he could see his reflection. He staggered back against the wall. His eyes had changed from their usual emerald green to a flaxen yellow. Not only that, but his canines were slightly longer and sharper as well. Were it not for the almost snout like shape his nose was taking, he would have sworn he looked like a vampire.

It was then they decided it would be best to retreat back to town and quickly. But they paused long enough to watch the transformed crowd begin hunting the pre-released wildlife in the ruins that served as a maze and hunting ground.

By the time they arrived back at the abandoned barn, Ewoden had started sprouting fur of his own, although this was a ginger red to match his own hair rather than black. Once he was in the dark, away from the moonlight, it was almost as if those lupine features had never even been there. They melted away and he was left human again.

"You were infected." Sally told him, although it was clear she was reluctant to do so. "But if we keep you indoors every full moon we shouldn't have much of a problem. It looks like the transformation only begins when you step into the moonlight." That would account for all the tales of werewolves reverting back to their normal forms when a cloud passed over the moon, the former Sarafan mused but he shook his head, running a hand over his nose to assure himself that it was back to normal.

"Hide every full moon? I don't think I'll be able to do that." He admitted. Sally looked at him questioningly. "There was something there, some kind of longing… a pull I could barley resist." He looked up at her, realization in his eyes. "I wanted to be part of that hunt. It took a lot to just walk away from it." His words were more than true. Had this full moon been his third, he would have fully transformed in seconds and already be tearing his way through animals and as sickening as it sounded, Ewoden felt a twinge of regret that he could not take part tonight.

That thought scared him a little. He had never liked spilling blood, human or animal, yet now he was actually looking forward to it.

Sally thankfully made sure that he did not step outside until the moon had gone down and the dawn was beginning.

"Now we know where the Seroli are at least." Ewoden announced, staring out at the rising sun. "Let's go and have a word with that old vendor."

The old man looked a little surprised to see Ewoden again at his stall. The market wasn't even open today, he'd simply come down here to clean up a few things.

"You again?" He asked, then noticed the cloaked companion he had beside him. The face hiding behind a cloth hood, although the eyes, glaring at him from the darkness were clearly visible. Not only that, but Ewoden was still wearing his Sarafan armour.

"It's time to talk werewolf." The former Sarafan announced. The old man opened his mouth to speak. "I know what you are; I witnessed your little venture last night up in the ruins." Now the vendor looked worried, dropping the bundles under his arms and backing away, eyes wide in terror.

"I know not of what you speak." He replied, shaking slightly. "I a simple business man.." He looked back at them. "I am no werewolf."

"We saw you transform." Sally replied from the darkness of her hood. "You, the Seroli, have information we require."


	17. Chapter 17: Kain

Kain

Chapter 17

* * *

I had last met this…woman, when Vorador sent me to gather information about the Sarafan Lord's device. It was from her that I acquired my ability to use telekinesis, a gift which was passed on in varying amounts to my sons. We had not had long to speak however, as the Sarafan lord interrupted our conversation when he attacked her abode. To help me carry on with my endeavour, she teleported me away from the danger. For a while, I assumed that she had simply burned when the Sarafan set her house ablaze. Yet here she was.

Surprisingly, the fact that she was obviously a Hylden did not bother me as much as it should.

"And what business is that?" I asked her, replying to her statement. She smiled coyly, before walking over to a set of spiralling stairs that led down from the balcony.

"We are both in a position where cooperation would be in our best interests. I require a service from you, and you require a service from us." She began, descending down the steps. From the _'US'_ part, I assumed she meant the princess Alicia of Willendorf, who sat nearby with an amused smirk on her face.

"Go on." I added, giving the human girl a side-glance. By now the Seer had reached the floor and I could see her properly. She had the physical properties of other Hylden, the bone quills spiking out from her shoulder blades and on the side of her head and the arched feet. She had brown hair however and she lacked the skeletal, yet insect like appearance of those I had seen in the demon dimension.

I mused that perhaps that hideous appearance had been another of the effects of prolonged imprisonment with the demon realm.

"Several thousand years ago, your kind and mine were at war over something as trivial as religion. In distaste, I left the conflicts to venture across the northern borders of Nosgoth to more peaceful surroundings." She began, seating herself down in one of the chairs. "My people lost and were banished. I too would have been drawn in, had I not managed to escape the effect of the pillars by being beyond the borders of Nosgoth at the time."

"How convenient for you." I began; staring at her with levelled eyes. I knew better than to trust her word of course. There was much more to her that what met the eye and taking the word of someone like that was sheer folly. Moebius had taught me that much at least.

"But it seems my civilisation had a trump card to use against you and your allies in case of defeat." She didn't have to add anything more, I already knew the story. "And so, there in lies our mutual interest. I want my people to be free, and you want to rid of the curse. One task that can not be completed without the other."

"And precisely what assistance could you offer me that would be worth mine?" I asked, getting slightly impatient.

"As a seer, I can see into the time stream, past or future. But the visions are not for me to select." Her statement did little to melt my suspicions. That simply made her more like Moebius than I was comfortable with. "The path the future will take is unclear to me, so to make it turn out more favourable, I offer you the one thing you require. Direction."

"Direction?" I repeated with a raised eyebrow. The Hylden lady smirked.

"You have the power, but no means of using it. You know your ultimate destiny, but have no way of achieving it."

"And you could supply me with it?" She was offering to be my advisor, at least that was what I thought. She would be disappointed. I had no need of advice and was less inclined to use it. The last time I had listened to advice, I ended up changing history for the worse. Either way, there was something missing from the equation. "And what would you expect in return?"

"Help with my own endeavour of course." The release of the Hylden. If I was honest, I would admit I had contemplating the possibility myself. Those trapped in the demon dimension were utterly insane and warped to far from their former selves to be saved, or at least that was what I had believed. Once outside the demon dimension, the effects of prolonged exposure to that realm began to reverse themselves.

Hylden however had been trapped in there for so long, it might take decades for them to regain their sanity, not to mention their good looks.

"And precisely what interest do you have in all this human?" I asked, turning back to the princess, who up till now had been an outside observer to the conversation. She sat there with a plain smile that concealed her true emotions on her face.

"My needs are simple." She replied, apparently harbouring none of the characteristic fear her kind often expelled towards me. "The lion of Willendorf has been tamed under the whip of the Sarafan for centuries. I want to restore the kingdom to it's rightful statues, and helping you expose the Sarafan for the butchers they are is the only way I can achieve that. The Sarafan are skilled at killing vampires, but when it comes to a full peasant revolt I'm willing to bet they'll have trouble." She wasn't lying, that I could instinctively tell, but there something else too. Something she was holding her tongue about. "Regardless of the beliefs of the vampires, not all humans revere the Sarafan as gods. There are a great many who would be willing to risk their lives to help you, if it meant destroying the Sarafan once and for all."

These two were not to be trusted. That one fact had been clear from the moment I stepped through the door. But still, for the moment at least, we had a common goal.

"Very well." I began. "You have my interest. If you do not lie in your throats, we have common ground."

"Good." The princess began with a smile that reminded me for much of Moebius I couldn't help but inwardly shiver. "The seer has told me you seek knowledge of the Druids of bane, the one presently in control of the Sarafan order." I shot the Hylden women a side glance.

"That I do." I replied as the Seer forged a smirk.

"The Druids are an ancient order, dating back to the time of the Pillar's corruption. Their ultimate goal is revenge on the vampire who killed the founder of their sect." The princes smiled smugly. "Which would be you I believe." She ignored the scowl I sent her and carried on. "When the Sarafan lord was defeated, the Order became uncoordinated and nearly collapsed. Then, at the last second, they elected a new leader which saved them from being disbanded. This new leader is a high ranking cultist amongst the Druids and their Eye of God, a man called Sabre." The name did not ring any bells for me, so I let her continue. "Pooling their resources, the Sarafan were quickly back in control, but with the Glyph magic now gone, they were forced to abandon Meridian to search for a new stronghold. The fortress of the first order has gone since collapsed into ruins, and so my father, another high ranking Druid offered Willendorf to them."

"Tell me…" I began, looking down my nose at her. "If your father endorses the Sarafan rule, then do you, his own daughter defy him?" Alicia chuckled, finding my question overly amusing.

"My father is a puppet, a simple minded fool too easy swayed by the rambling of priests. He would sacrifice the glory of the kingdom just to satisfy some invisible and most likely, none existent deity." I suddenly found a new respect for this girl. She had a very sharp tongue, notable ambition and a most astonishingly of all for a human, a brain in her head. Most royals I had known were inbred degenerates, yet here seemed to be an exception made flesh. "The seer offered me help in wresting the throne away from the Sarafan, in return for my assistance as a spy for your quest." I cast another glance at the seer, who remained as unreadable as ever.

"You risk death." I told her. "If the Sarafan, or even your dear father discover your intentions, you will die. And I am willing to wager the experience will be less than pleasant." Strangely, she did not seem concerned with my statement.

"Nothing can be gained without tasking some kind of risk. And overthrowing the Sarafan rule after two hundred years of dictatorship, is something I am willing to risk death for."

A thought passed through my mind that my admittedly low opinion of humans had been down to the machinations of a select handful. Many of their kind were actually decent people and hardly cowards. True they could never measure up to a vampire in strength or courage, yet they had a certain nobility of their own.

"I can hardly see the Sarafan being ordered around by any outside influence." I began. "Not without something to secure their alliance anyway."

"Correct. The Order and the Druids never saw eye to eye on anything, yet Sabre had something, something they would do anything to claim and that, as they say, sealed the deal."

"And that something would be?"

"Even I don't know everything." She replied flatly. "But given enough time to snoop, I'm sure I can learn more." Something told me to keep an eye on this one. While a useful ally, it would be unwise for me to trust her. She had great ambitions, and clearly would shake hands with the devil to satisfy them. "As for the Druids themselves, before they started pulling the strings of the Sarafan that is, they originally held away over the denizens of the western settlements. Particularly in Zeigstuhrl." That name rang a bell, a very loud bell at that.

It was there my life as a nobleman ended, and my life as a vampire began. There that my destiny was set in motion. "Unfortunately, my own intelligence resources stop just short of the Great Southern Lake. So if you want information, I suggest seeking it out there."

"This…Sabre." I began. "Is he anything special, or simply a figurehead for their movement?" The princess grimaced.

"Oh…he's something alright." She replied with a hint of distaste in her voice. "Hardly anything like a figurehead. Wilful, forceful, self opinionated and….

"And he tried to court the young Princess Alicia here more than once." The Seer added with a short giggle. Alicia now looked very irritated.

"Anything…as I was saying, Sabre is the Grand Master of the Druids. After he claimed dominance over the Sarafan, he started going by the title, Arch-Knight. He spends most of his time personally commanding his warriors. Whenever he's not at the front, he stays here in the Castle with my dear Father." Her tone on the word 'dear', was flat and hinted at sarcasm. "They convene with the other high ranking members of their sect in their private chamber at the top of the keep."

"And what lies in there?" I asked. She shook her head.

"That, I am afraid, is beyond my knowledge. All but the Druids themselves are forbidden to enter that room. Even the guards unless summoned."

Like that's ever stopped you.- Raziel muttered and I could feel him rolling his none existent eyes.

"Tell me Seer." I began to the Hylden woman. "What guarantees do I have that once the Hylden are released, that they will not start on some insane plan of genocide and domination?" The last time they earned a parole from the demon dimension, they nearly destroyed all life in Nosgoth. I was not about to risk it.

"I can not guarantee such a thing. Their anger has brewed for eons and will be difficult for them to set aside." She admitted. "However, once outside the confines of that realm, they will slowly revert back to their old selves. All they need is time." A lot of time, I mused. The Sarafan lord had been outside the demon dimension for two hundred years and had still been quite insane. If eons warped them into the monsters they now were, eons would be needed to repair the damage.

"And how do you propose to give them that time?" She smiled seductively.

"There is a place in Nosgoth, where time means nothing. It's creator made it a focal point for temporal distortions. A being could spend uncountable eons in that place, and only a day would have passed outside the walls." I set my face in a deep frown.

"The Eternal Prison." I had been there myself once before. It was not a location I would return to willingly, as the horrors contained without were greatly disturbing, even for a vampire. The seer nodded in agreement.

"Once contained within the prison's walls, they will have all the time they require to heal their minds."

"I have been to this place before. You would trade them one prison for another. The confines of that place are just as bad as the demon dimension." I smiled grimly. "And believe my, I've seen both." The seer shook his head.

"I do not intend for them to suffer there, but that is a conversation for another time." Her expression grew ominous. "As for the direction I promises, you are set on the path of the Scion. You have overcome time itself in order to tread down this road and now you have, you need to know where you are going." She managed a smile. "The Human, the former Sarafan knight Janos Audron befriended. Ewoden isn't it? Vorador sent him north to investigate the Seroli and their seers. Once he returns to the mansion, he will have news for you." I raised an eyebrow as she looked off into space. "Vorador has finished his research and has new information as well."

"Good or bad?" I asked sceptically. She smiled

"Why not go and find out for yourself?" I snorted loudly in reply.

"For one seeking to be my ally, you keep a lot of secrets." Her smiled deepened. It was an innocent sort of smile, yet just beneath it I could sense the dark humour brewing in her soul. Not malevolent, but relishing in itself none the less.

"We will speak again soon Kain and believe me, you will find my services most useful."

Suddenly, the door to the entrance of the Princess' chamber shook as something smashed into it from behind, straining against the lock. Instantly the hilt of the Soul Reaver was in my hand as I shot around to face it.

The door shook again and I could hear the metallic clanking of footsteps of men in armour began swathing in like a draft.

"Open the door vampire, we know you're in there!" A rough voice shouted.

"That treachery is this?" I hissed back at the princess.

"Don't blame me for your sloppy attempt at stealth Kain." She retorted angrily. "Now conceal yourselves, quickly." The Hylden Seer just seemed to vanish all of a sudden, like she had never even been there. As for me, I evoked another of the power's Raziel had 'lent' me. The elemental power of darkness shrouded my body from sight, rendering me completely invisible.

Just then, the doors opened up and a company of Sarafan soldiers barged into the room, their swords and other weapons drawn. They were just regular soldiers and not the light wielding kind.

"Where is he?" They demanded of the only visible on in the room.

"Where is who?" The princess asked, sounding irritated that she had been disturbed.

"The vampire. One was detected in the keep." A solider told her. The princess scoffed at him.

"As you can see, I'm the only one here. And I protest at a group of men bursting into my chambers without invitation." The soldiers grumbled loudly, lowering their weapons. Even though they had sway in the city and the keep, the Princess still had enough authority to have them beheaded if displeased.

"A stranger was reported entering this chamber." Their leader announced, his eyes squinting at her through the visor of his helm.

"Yes, that was a noble from the west. He was here to discuss trade with the Order." The princess told him adamantly. "Be grateful you didn't burst in while he was still here, you could have destroyed a valuable negotiations attempt that would have kept you gentlemen armed and well fed." They all suddenly looked very sheepish. "Now get of my room!" As they turned to leave, Alicia silently gestured to the open balcony window with a smile. She was telling me to leave while the getting was good and I was inclined to agree with her. Quickly I shot outside, then dissolved into bats and was on my way.


	18. Chapter 18: Ewoden

CHAPTER 18

EWODEN

* * *

The vendor looked very uneasy, and with good reason.

Ewoden had him cornered now, and armed with the knowledge he had obtained the ruins north of the town, the former Sarafan knew that this old man was one of the Werewolves; one of the Seroli smiths to be more accurate. He would never willingly reveal anything to them of course. The Seroli were highly secretive, fleeing deep into the wilderness of Nosgoth and hiding in the uncharted regions of the land and thus had largely escaped the wrath of the Sarafan knights over the centuries.

"You needn't cower, I mean you no harm." Ewoden told the old man, seeing the fear in his eyes. The Seroli had watched as the vampires were brutally hunted by the Sarafan. They had seen the forests of the crusades victims, barbarically impaled on pikes and they did not wish such a fate upon themselves.

"You stand there in a Sarafan uniform and tell me you wish no harm?" The old vendor replied, backing up against the wall. He tried to run to the side, but Sally, her form hidden in the darkness of a cloak did not let him pass and Ewoden blocked the other way, trapping him there.

"I am no longer Sarafan. I have no intention of exterminating you. All I want is information."

"I…I don't know what you're talking about." He stammered, his gaze drawn from vampire to human, sweat running down his forehead.

"There's no use trying to lie, we saw your hunting ritual in the ruins last night." Sally told him, her voice rushing out from the darkness of her hood as a shrill wind. Vampires were extremely good at intimidation, even in broad day light. "We saw you, and a good deal of the others from this town transform into Werewolves. We know you are Seroli smiths." Suddenly, someone laid a large hand down on each of their shoulders, the fingers clamping down tightly.

"Let him go." Someone ordered them. Looking back, Ewoden saw a tall, muscular man standing behind them. He was obviously a warrior of some kind, judging from the scars running down his face, neck and torso. His skin was tanned brown and hair jet black and in untidy and jagged Mohawk running over the top of his head. His eyes were set hard against them, a deep stare that unnerved even Sally. He was clad in light, leather brown armour made of animal skins and other tough materials. The only metal he wore for projection was a pair of bracers and a shoulder pad.

"Kill them, quickly, before they bring more Sarafan." The vendor told the large man, in the confusion pushing past them to his side. The man was silent, staring down at the former Sarafan, directly into his Emerald green eyes. Then he straightened himself up and crossed his arms.

"There is no need Anthony, he is not here to harm us." The vendor looked up at his large companion in utter surprise and confusion.

"What are you saying? Look at him, he's a Sarafan! Kill them Obelisk!" The man called Obelisk simply shook his head again.

"We've meet before." He stated and Ewoden raised an eyebrow in confusion. He'd never meet his man before in his entire life, and he was good at remembering faces. He paused, finally noticing the scars on the man's front properly. Deep cuts, that had healed too quickly. Cuts that could only been caused by the blade edge of a knife and an axe. Those marks were directly where he'd struck the Werewolf that attacked them on their way here. That scar down the right hand side had been caused by the Axe, Malice on his back. The cuts on the other side Sally had dealt with her many concealed daggers.

"You…" The former Sarafan stated, suddenly finding himself in mixture of awe and rage. He removed the bracer from his left arm and pushed the bandages aside, to reveal the horrific bite the Werewolf had left in the flesh. "I have you to thank for this!" Obelisk seemed strangely detached as he regarded the wound sceptically, reaching out with a finger to trace his way around it, studying the teeth marks. His tongue rolled around inside his mouth, examining his own dentures for a moment before he sighed and stood up straight.

"He's not Sarafan, Anthony. He's one of us." He told the vendor, who looked as confused as ever.

"One of us?" He repeated; his voice horsed in utter surprise. Then a revelation spread over his face. "So that's were you got those scars, and you bite him?"

"On the road to Stahlberg." Obelisk replied. "I was hunting a Bear when I picked up his scent. I thought him a Sarafan patrol, so I went after him." He turned to look at Sally. "This Vampire was with him."

"Vampire!" Anthony declared. "Are you sure?"

"I saw her fangs." The large man replied. "And she was afraid to follow the fight into the water." He paused, regarding the cloaked female, her cowl up so protect her from the early morning sunlight. "Strange that one such as you would be in the company of a human."

"Like I said." Ewoden stated, trying to divert the course of the conversation. "We came here only for information, and now I require it more than ever." He added, gesturing to his wound before wrapping it up. "We mean no harm, we only want to talk." The old vendor looked apprehensive again. He quickly looked around to see if no one else was around to listen in on their conversation. Apparently, not everyone in the town was a werewolf and they were trying to keep a very low profile, especially with Sarafan activity on the rise in the south-east.

"He could be a spy...sent by the order." Obelisk shook his head.

"He's not."The large manreplied. "Trust me." The Vendor mumbeled to himself, running his fingers through his hair.

"Come…this way." He finally replied, gesturing for them to follow him. He lead them through the small town to the tavern directly in the centre, a small place nestled almost directly in the centre of the insignificant hamlet. A wooden sign flapped outside in the wind with the words, Capt'n Bitter's Sudz printed on the top. Since it was still early in the morning with the sun barley up, the public house was locked. Anthony hammered on the door until someone answered, a small man still in a night gown, rubbing he sleep out of his eyes.

"It's six AM for god's sake, and we all had a late night so what is it? You know we don't open until ten thirty."

"I don't want Mead you stupid Ass!" Anthony declared, barging his way through with the others following. The inside of the tavern was a large space with one floor and a set of stairs leading up to a balcony above, along which were doors leading to the guest rooms. Round tables were placed in rows across the room, the chairs stacked upon them. The firepower had a good deal of ash in the bottom, showing it had been used recently and the musty smell of smoke still hung in the air. The small man looked alarmed as a man he had never seen before, dressed in Sarafan armour, walked in after them. "Don't worry, he's not Sarafan." Anthony exclaimed. "At least I hope not. I need to get down below, quickly now!" The small man muttered something quick and under his breath, before rushing to the bar at the far end of the room, pushing a large barrel behind it out of the way to clever the way of concealed trap door in the wall. Only a trained eye would have been able to notice it, the edges of the concealed entrance melted into the background perfectly.

"Get through, before someone sees!" The man ushered them all and as soon as they were in the stone corridor beyond, he shut the door behind them. They could hear the barrel being hastily shoved back into place after them.

Instantly the corridor curved downwards into a flight of stairs, leading down a dank passage lit by a few torches. Ewoden had been in one of these before. In order to escape Sarafan purges, The Seroli had their abodes in hidden chambers below the ground. Edward, the werewolf he had met had had his hidden inside a cave, the door concealed by some kind of Hylden technology.

"Who sent you here?" Obelisk asked as they descended down towards the bottom of the stair case. Now in the darkness, it was safe for Sally to remove her cowl, revealing his face, showing to them both that she was indeed a vampire.

"Vorador." She replied. "He wants information and only you have it." Hearing that name, both Obelisk and Anthony stopped and stared.

"'The' _Vorador_?" The old man asked. Ewoden nodded slowly. Vorador was a name know far and wide in Nosgoth, the name of the vampire that defeated Malek, assaulted the circle of Nine and then headed up the vampire resistance in Meridian. But it held special reverence amongst the Seroli, for Vorador had once been one of their greatest smiths and the forger of the Reaver blade itself. He would even have shared their curse, had he not been chosen to receive the Dark gift first. "I thought he severed his connection with us?" Anthony asked Obelisk.

"He did." The larger man replied. "He hasn't spoken with the Elders for over two thousand years. He would not even contact us for help when fighting the Sarafan, strange that he would now." He turned face their visitors. "Information on what?"

"Your Seers." Sally replied. "Look, who is in charge of you brigands? I want to speak to these Elders of yours." Ewoden grimaced. Sally could be forceful at times, lacking the slightest trace of diplomacy. "Don't you know it!" She told him seductively through the Whisper.

"Any Elder would not see you on a whim." Obelisk began, but then managed a large smirk. "But I'm sure the name Vorador could get you access inside a central chamber."

The stairs lead down for quite s distance before they opened up into an underground tunnel system, thick vines and creepers hung from the ceiling, worming their way down from the vegetation above through cracks in the Earth. From the way these rocky corridors had been put together, this place used to be a mine of some sorts. Support beams, freshly applied stood to attention along each wall and ceiling, some with lights hanging from them, a candle inside a glass jar. The faint drop of water could be heard resonating out from somewhere deeper into the maze of tunnels.

"It isn't so bad you know." The large man told Ewoden as Anthony lead them further down through the tunnels. "The transformation isn't painful, it's just hard to control once you assume the wolf form." It had taken all the will he could muster to resist that strong pull he had experienced last night. Everything was screaming at him to step fully into the moonlight and complete his transformation. He had wanted to run with the other werewolves, to tear some animal open and relish the sweet tang of flesh.

He shivered inwardly. Was this who he was now, someone desperately trying to keep some demon in check in case it was unleashed on some child?

-That's what I first asked myself when Vorador made me a Vampire- Sally told him, whispering into his head. He looked up at her. She was walking ahead of Obelisk and himself and had her back to him. It still felt a little strange to be talking this way. -The bloodlust was something I never thought I could live with. I refused to drink even a drop of it I don't like to admit this, but over time your resistance to it erodes.- Through the Whisper, Ewoden experienced one of her memories; of how she had finally gave in and fed for the first time. It had been on a rich merchant she'd found travelling south towards the Sarafan Stronghold, on the road that passed by the swamp.

Her feelings over that emotional moment had been mixed. She felt horror and intense grief over the man she had sacrificed to prolong her own existence, but within her dark side she could feel satisfaction and relief. Despite her existence as a vampire, Sally's humans morals had not been destroyed, only relaxed.

As for him, he didn't know what his morals were. He had never had much of a problem with killing to survive. The Order had taught him survival instincts and tactics, as well as how to fight and finish the opponent and his previous years in the Willendorf mines as a slave had left him bitter enough to lash out, yet deep inside he still had his own believes of what was right and wrong.

But what was rintg and wrong he asked himself? Morals depended on that difference. Yet what was the difference? One mans justice could be another mans' evil. Something one considered evil would not appear so if one was doing it to prolong his life or the life of others.

It was then Ewoden realised something important. Right and wrong were just words which in the end meant nothing. The only way another could live their lives and truly consider themselves free was to live it of their own accord, to be true to themselves.

The only question remaining was…**_what was _**Ewoden's true self? Was he the scared slave, the Sarafan knight or a wolf like creature hunting anything that moved? Or was he something more complex, a composite of all three, or maybe something completely different.

"What is it?" A guard stationed outside a wooden door blocking the tunnel stated as they drew near. She was a middle aged women with a few pieces of leather armour over his clothes and a sword at her side.

"We need to see the Arch-Smith." Obelisk told her.

"No one sees Ramek while he's working." She replied flatly.

"Tell him agents of Vorador would like to have a word." At the name Vorador, the guard suddenly looking uneasy thrown clear off her high horse.

"Well…wait here." Quickly she disappeared through the door, closing it behind here. There were a few moments of silence before she reappeared. "Come on then." She stated, pushing the swinging door ajar and letting them past.

Beyond the door was another short tunnel, which quickly opened up into a large underground chamber.

"This is Ramek." Anthony announced and finally Ewoden was brought back from his thoughts. Before them was a large round cave like chamber with a single stone pillar lancing down from the ceiling leading down to the floor. At the bottom it widened out into a pit, in which flowed a thick red sludge; molten lava. Stretched over this deadly mass were several metal bars that crossed over each other.

Forging a weapon of some kind using the heat from the lava was another man, just as large as Obelisk and tanned by years at the forge. From the back they could see he had a very shaggy hair and was extremely muscular. He wore over his cheat a stain brown apron that absorbed the flying sparks as the hammer in his right hand smashed down on a metal shard about a meter long, smashing it into a blade like shape. When he noticed their intrusion, he turned up from his work to face them.

Ewoden was left staring at a vision of what he could become over time and it shock him down to his core. Over the years, this elder of the Seroli had become more and more wolf-like. His face was arrange almost in a canine like snout and his ears were pointed and covered in a thin brown fur. He looked like he was part way to full werewolf form already.

"Not once in over two millennia has Vorador sent us a message." He stated, his voice very deep. When he opened his mouth they could see the two sets of fangs. "Ever since he assumed the dark gift has he never spoken to us. Not even during the first Sarafan purge when the Vampires were near extinction did he ask for help. And yet out of the blue here you are." He paused, sighting the wrappings on Ewoden's arm and the stained blood on them. "Ah…" Ramek began, a humoured glint in his canine eyes. "Well this is new." Ewoden glanced down at his injury that was healing, a little too quickly. A speed of recovery that could only be down to supernatural intervention. "A Sarafan knight with a vampire companion is rare enough, but now under the shadow of the wolf as well? This becomes more interesting by the second." The large man gestured to the two who had brought them in. Obelisk and Anthony lowered their heads respectfully, before bidding themselves exit. "Now, what finally forces Vorador to make contact with those he spurned in eons past?"


	19. Boss 2: Sabre

Kain

Boss 2: Sabre

* * *

I took a moment to sort through the details I had learnt in Willendrof before deciding on my course of action. To collect myself I stopped on a hillock outside the city province to stare back at it, allowing myself one last glimpse into my past. My first impulse had been to kill those Sarafan Knight when they interrupted my conversation with the Princess and the Seer, but if I did that, I would reveal my connection to the young girl and I believed I needed to keep our supposed alliance hidden from the Sarafan a little longer.

Even though my court in Coorhagen was officially independent, it still answered to the Ottmar throne. As such, my grandfather, my father and I myself had sworn alliance to the lion crest. Even so, during my rise to power I had attacked the city with my army and burned it down to the ground. I had reasoned that it was the human noble Kain who had sworn that oath, not me…the vampire king. Looking at it now, under Sarafan whips, I began to wonder if perhaps I was worse than they were.

I shook my head. I had done evil things in the past in a lust for power, I was making up for it now wasn't I? I shuddered, reasoning that I had been shaken more than I like to admit by the sight of Umah at Vorador's mansion.

"Greetings." A voice stated and instantly the hilt of the Soul Reaver was in my hand as I swirled around to confront a figure standing a short distance behind me. At first glimpse he was human, late twenties with bright blonde hair, long to his shoulder and brown eyes. He was clad in armour, Sarafan style but engraved with runes across the chest plate and gold running through the ridges. Two white drapes hung over his shoulders and the ends were attached to a belt around his waist. In his hand was a long sword, the blade metal pure white and the hilt embodied gold; a standard Sarafan weapon. "Good to finally meet you Kain. I'm honoured."

"Most people wouldn't call meeting me… an honour." I replied, descending into a fighting stance with the Reaver close in hand, the sprit of my first born within it burning ready for the fight. The Sarafan knight chuckled briefly.

"No, I don't supposed they would." This one was uncharacteristically a lot more charismatic than most Sarafan I had met. "My name is Sabre." He stated. "No doubt by now you've heard of me." That I had. The Princess that already informed me of this one. He was a high ranking Druid and a chief member of the Eye of God Cult. Also he was the one elected to take the place of the Sarafan Lord. "I must say, your visage certainly meets with the tales I've been told about you." He added. "Your past self, the one who cowardly hides within the ruins of the north country isn't providing me much sport."

"You call killing…no…extermination, sport?" I asked him but remaining a safe distance. He had come alone and armed only with one weapon. No sane leader would do such a thing and he did not strike me as the crazy type. Clearly there was more to him than met the eye.

"Extermination is such an ugly word." Sabre replied, testing his blade against the chain mail on his gauntlet. "I prefer…hunt. And you vampires are the ultimate big game. Quick, agile, intelligent. I can't tell you how exhilarating the chase can be. And I'm doing my holy duty at the same time so it's win, win situation for me."

"Oh how convenient for you." I replied flatly with levelled eyes.

"This hunt should be most interesting." Sabre began again, looking over my physical form, judging my abilities on my appearance alone.

"You assume I intend to run." The human suddenly looked most disappointed.

"That's no fun." He stated with a sigh. "It's boring when the pray just stands there." He shook his head and placed his free hand on the chest plate of his armour. "Oh I had hoped for so much more. Still, I had best get this over with." There as a sudden flash and the engraved markings on his armour flared blood red, a brilliance of illumination that could only come from the sun erupting through the air like fire. I held a gauntlet up to my face to cover my eyes. This was the magic these new Sarafan employed, the same Vorador had warned me about. "Well this is new." Sabre announced unexpectedly as the light died down to nothing and found me still standing there before him, completely unharmed.

His face bore a genuinely surprised look on it, as if he hadn't expected nothing to happen. At the very least he expected me to me in some pain, but clearly this little light show was not hurting me in the slightest.

"You think sunlight will affect an elder vampire?" I asked him callously.

"It did before." He replied, glancing down at the armour in puzzlement. "Even ancient vampires could not resist the magic." A smile quickly sprung up on his lips. "Well, I suppose I might get some fun out of this dispatching after all." His grip tightened on the blade of his sword and he charged, blade held ready to strike. His form was excellent, coming at me so swiftly and with such force I actually found it difficult to parry off his swing with the Reaver.

Our blades clashed and as metal bit against metal, sparks leapt into the air like stars. A power struggle engaged; the two of us trying to out do the other in strength.

"Not bad Vampire." Sabre commented with a dry smile. "The lord's description of your skills was quite correct."

"I'm just getting started!" With a shove, I forced him back before bringing my leg around in an arch and landing a kick against the side of his armour. He grunted in pain, before jabbing forward with the tip of his sword ready to pierce my skin. All he ended up running through instead was a cloud of mist. Materialising behind him, I brought the Soul Reaver up and prepared to bring the whole thing down through his back. To my surprised, he dodged the swing with near super human agility before slashing at my throat with his blade. Ducking under it, I brought a free hand up quickly catching him on the face with my talons. Blood flying, he staggered backwards clasping a hand to his chin; thick streams of crimson running through his fingers. Strangely, he looked unconcerned at the two scars I had dealt him on the chin. Instead he raised a hand and started making signs in the air with two fingers. It took me a moment to realize what he was doing, but by the time I recognising the arcane magic used by magicians it was too late. A fire ball rocketed forward and had I not evaporated into my bat form I would have been burnt to a cinder.

While I was putting myself back together, he cast another spell and instantly two wings made of white unfolded from his shoulder blades, spreading out like angelic limbs; each feather jagged like the end of a spear. Beating these, he rose up into the air and once at a considerable height began firing a rapid succession of fire ball spells down towards me. Refusing to move, I gripped the hilt of the Reaver tight in both hands and with Raziel's help, accessed another of the blade's elemental powers.

The power of water surged through the sword and a cold blast of air shot upwards, freezing the fire balls in their tracks and smashed head on straight into the flying Sabre. His hair started freezing with bits of ice forming between the strands and his skin turned a pale white. He shook himself violently to warm up, before casting another spell; surrounding his own body with an intense blood red glow.

Sabre was a fierce warrior in combat, and an expert magician when it came to magic. Clearly he had mastered both Sarafan and Druid styles of combat.

"I'd expected a little more can cheap tricks from the devil." He stated, brushing the ice out of his hair. "Especially from the corruptor of the world. One who did this to Nosgoth, could clearly keep up with me." He added, gesturing to the blackening world around us. I slid to a stop below him; still with the Reaver blade in my hand. I stared up towards the floating leader of the Sarafan order and fixed him with a glare.

"You're Master…." I began. "I am right to assume you think him god?"

"He is god." Sabre corrected me, his smile suddenly turning to a short frown. "For centuries you and your kind have been disturbing his wheel of fate, causing it to go stagnant." His smile returned, but this time it was far more of a sadistic sneer. "The Sarafan will not allow this to continue."

-There can be no question now.- Raziel whispered into my head, the eye sockets on the Reaver burning blue in anticipation of battle. –The Elder God is the one supporting these new Sarafan.-

Well, now I had the link I was looking for. The Elder God was indeed ultimately behind this, controlling the Druids who controlled the Sarafan Order and who in-turn controlled the citizenry of Nosgoth. I could see why the Princess Alicia was desperate to bring down the Order. After so many years of dictatorship disguised as peacekeeping, anyone's mouth would be full of a bitter taste.

Sabre descended to the ground and once his feet were on the dying grass, his wings disappeared, simply fading away behind him like they had never existed.

"Have you ever seen your Master?" I asked him. The human did not reply. "I have. I've seen your Master….I know what he looks like."

"Please do not try to sway me with heresy. It won't work." Sabre replied flatly, swinging his blade around between the fingers on one hand as if testing the weight of the sword. "God has no physical form. He is life itself, the essence of Nosgoth. One can not see him, only hear his divine words." It was worthless trying to correct him of his delusions and I had not much incentive to try any harder. The Sarafan army were zealots and hardly swayed by a few words, especially words from a vampire.

Attacking first, I changed in my mist form and the fire ball he tried to cast passed right through me. Coming in too close from him to contour attack, I brought the hilt of the Reaver right into his face causing him to topple backwards in dismay. Swinging the blade around, I jabbed it straight at his stomach to finish him off.

The engraved runes on his armour flared to life again and suddenly it was as if some invisible force was pushing me away, hurling me backwards away from my quarry. Scrapping my talons through the mud to slow me down, I looked back to see some white light surrounding Sabre's body push the Sarafan warrior back up to his feet.

"The light of the divine fills me Vampire." He stated. "I can not die."

"Many people have made that claim; none of them could validate it!" Reaching out with telekinesis, I ripped him from where he stood and as he hurtled towards me I thrust the Soul Reaver forward. A sickening crack ripped through the air and the tip of the blade burst out his back with a spray of red.

Sabre gagged out in pain, going limp on my sword. After a moment, I let his body slid off the edge of the sword and onto the ground. There he lay; his blood slowly staining the ground. "Neither could you." I sneered at him.

Suddenly, Sabre's eyes opened, his eyes changing from their lifeless white back to their normal brown.

"Can't I?" As if nothing had happened to him at all, he stood back up and I watched in quiet awe as the wound I had just dealt him healed itself, skin, flesh and bone re-growing back into place. "I am god's new right hand man Kain. After you dispatched the loyal Moebius, I took his place." So, not only a high-ranking Druids or the Sarafan leader, but the Elder God's guardian as well?

"Why does your god fear me so much, have you ever asked yourself that?" I asked him with a sneer of my own. "It fears me because it knows that somehow, someway…I'll find a way to kill it!" Sabre's face remained unreadable, before a flat frown spread over his lips.

"You're even more delusional then I thought you'd be."

"And if I can find a way to kill it, I can most certainly find a way to kill you!" I continued, before launching into a savage attack, slashing at him repeatedly with the Reaver. Smiling, he just stood there an absorbed the blows, bloody marks quickly being carved into his body. His armour tore open, quickly followed by his flesh in giant sprays of red reaching into the air and to finish off, I sank my fangs into his neck and started drinking.

The minute his blood touched my lips, it was like poison. The taste was foul, but the effects on my body were even worse. Instead of strengthening me, his blood only made me weaker, sapping whatever power and strength I had remaining. Trying to let go I pushed away, but Sabre simply grabbed my arm and forced me back to his neck.

"Feed Vampire, drink my blood. Let's see what it does for you!" He laughed with intended malice. My vision blurred as his acidic blood bubbled like a stream at my lips. I was being poisoned. Whatever Sabre was, he was clearly not human; at least not anymore. Finally I wrenched myself free using telekinesis, before dropping to my knees, barley keeping my grip on the Reaver.

"What…" I began, spitting the blood out of my mouth and onto my hands, seeing that it had burned jet black between my lips. "What on Nosgoth are you?" The leader of the Sarafan chuckled as the wounds I dealt him healed almost instantly. Then he started laughing out load as those light wings of his returns, unfurling from behind and spreading out, the runes engraved in his battered armour glowing blood red.

"I am the new angel of death, the new Reaver. My soul is one with that of the Lord." He replied. "As now, is yours!" He opened his mouth and a thick pulsating white glow began emitting from his throat. It suddenly felt like someone was reaching down into my core, tugging and pulling at what was me, trying to wrench my very being from me.

-Kain!- Raziel exclaimed. –Get away from him! The Elder God has given him the ability to drink souls!- Acting on instinct, I pulled my arm back and using what little power I had left, cast a bolt of magical lightning straight into his throat. The blast entered his mouth and smashed hard against his tonsils. Cursing, he shut his mouth and shattered backwards, smoke rising from between his lips.

Turning back, sword in hand, he found I had disappeared; gone in the midst of a teleportation spell.

"Go...run Kain." He muttered contemptuously, wiping the blood off his armour. "I'll present your stagnant soul to the master sooner or later."


	20. Chapter 20: Vorador

Chapter 20:

Vorador

* * *

- 

The thundering gallop came to an abrupt stop and the select prisoners huddled together like cattle in the wagonwere thrown violently down into the mud on the side of the road. They had stopped on the easternedge of the Termagant Forest, the rotting twisted mass of a swamp that stretched for miles across Nosgoth's middle. If Kain travelled south to meet their own armies, they wanted toleave theblood suckers a message.

The two knights up front disembarked first, clad in full Sarafan armour; even with the ceremonial red capes flowing out behind them. Their cruel squinting eyes scanned the collection of twenty prisoners forced to kneel before them in the mud as sword point. Some of them were vampires, others merely human traitors in service to the vampiric scourge and as such, were labelled for death just like their masters.

"That one there, it first." One of the knights began, jabbing his blade in the direction of a female vampire . She had been lashed and beaten, possibly even raped before being dragged here. None of them other prisoners could tell. The humans here had long abandoned the idea of vampires as an enemy, and could feel true pity with those of her kind already beside them. She didn't struggle as they dragged her forward and began erecting a stake. Her will to live had dissipated long ago, her yellow eyes staring of into nothing in a glazed expression.

"Don't look." Archimedes, one of the vampire spies for the Cabal whispered to a human merchant kneeling beside him as he averted his own gaze. The balding man cast a glance up, and looked away, forcing his eyes shut. The sickening crunch as the wooden pole passed through her breast and into her heart resonated across the canopy. One of the human females, the former owner of a Cabal safe house cried out before looking away; tears running down her cheeks.

"I wanted an excuse to cut the devils hands off." One of the lower class knights, as they propped the sick display up and prepared for another execution, the two Elite class talking amongst themselves as to which was next. Human or vampire, didn't really matter to them. "This one didn't even struggle." The other looked down at Archimedes. The fledgling had dull grey skin and raven black dirty hair, but with a handsome face. His golden eyes set hard set against the knight, his arms training to destroy the rope bonds that held them down; even with the two men standing behind the row of prisoners armed with cross bows. His clothes were torn and dirty with mud, and whatever jewellery he had had one him, judging by the holes in his pointed ears where two pairs of ear rings had been had been confiscated.

"I think this ones head would look good on a pike."

Someone cried out suddenly and blood began flying through and the air and spinning metal shards hurtled out of the semi darkness, thrown with expert precision they scored direct hits. Sometore out throats and others sinking into hearts and forced them still. Several armoured men went down at once, crashing to the muddy ground and lying still. The two elite knights drew their rune engraved swords and held up the shields on their right arms blocking any more projectiles.

That didn't stop their assailant. With the swiftness of the wind, Vorador came out of the dark undergrowth like a lance; his serrated blade ramming straight through one of them. The tip tore out the back in a spray of blood and metallic shards. As the man fell limp of the sword, Vorador picked his body up with telekinesis and tossed it violently back into the two men armed with cross bows. Knocking the both of them down before either of them had an opportunity to fire a shot.

The second Elite charged and Vorador parried out several swings, the ancients reflexes ultimately far superior to that of the Sarafan. Lashing out with a kick, the vampire stunned the knight long enough to dart behind the man and before he could do anything about it, jamming the blade straight through his throat.

As he went down, the two remaining Sarafan marksmen backed off. They were only armed with cross bows and clad in insufficient leather armour to take on a being like Vorador. Loosing their nerve, they ran, dropping their weapons and darting down the muddy road as fast as their legs would carry them. Unfortunately for them, Vorador could not have them reporting back that he was seen in this area.

He raised a free hand and a steady white glow surrounded his cloven hand. Suddenly, both men he tossed violently up high into the air. Those still on the ground watched as they steady rose higher and higher, until Vorador dropped his arm and they plummeted towards the ground; striking the road with tremendous force. Their bodies broke open on impact and the road itself turned red.

Vorador said nothing to the prisoners as he sheathed his blade. he simply turned to the vampire he had been too late to save. Her limp body hung suspended in mid air on that spike, fresh blood staining her torn clothes. He shock his head and softly touched her cheek with talon. She was still warm. Gently he pulled her off that terrible thing and carved a grave open with telekinesis. Only once he had seen to that did he release the prisoners.

They were all Cabal men, women and vampiric spies. Some he had sent personally into the Willendorf province, others were keepers of safe houses and even those with whom they did business. There was a spice merchant here who had allowed them to use a couple of his warehouses as meeting places.

"Ah, Archimedes. I'm glad to see you so well." The ancient began to the fledgling, removing his bounds. The young spy hadn't been treated much better than the others and was badly malnourished. It was a surprise he hadn't sunken his fangs into one of his fellow prisoners by now. "I take it your mission was less than successful?"

"Yes and no sire." He replied, rubbing the raw wounds where the rope had cut his wrists. "I was able to retrieve the information you requested, but was captured before I could return to give it to you." While most of the cabal had joined the younger Kain when he started his campaign again, a good few remained in Vorador's service and even more humans were joining now Sarafan activity was at an all time high. Some because they genuinely wanted to fight their oppressors and others Vorador suspected, because they wanted the Dark Gift and as much as he was inclined, he could not satisfy them all. The ancient vampire stood in the library of his mansion staring out across the wasteland of Nosgoth after he returned, his spies and collaborators remaining on the estate grounds for now. The order would never think of looking from any of them here, it was far too obvious a hiding place and they believed the Cabal more cunning than that. This way, their sect could remain in Vorador's already well known residence and at the same time remain hidden from the Sarafan. Not that many of the knights even wanted to penetrate the swamp. It was full of mutants, demons and other strange creatures hungry for blood. Few who ventured into its quicksand ridden depths ever returned.

Archimedes had brought him valuable information from the Sarafan intelligence bureau. According to them, the younger Kain had managed to recruit six vampiric warriors of immense skill. They were created tremendous amounts of damage on the front northern lines and even forcesd the sunlight knights back several miles. Was this part of the new history as the older Kain claimed, or something that was supposed to happen. Vorador would have to ask him when he returned.

Vorador had already done the research the supposed ancient from the future had requested of him and had what he thought was the answer. Still, his knowledge of Hylden settlements and technology was more limited than he would admit and there was a chance he could be wrong. But still, if that canister could be opened…Not once in over five thousand years had even considered the possibility of a cure. Not once…and yet Kain magically managed to get his hands on it. That seemed far too convenient to be taken for face value. Vorador did not trust him, but if there was even the smallest chance that this cure might actually work…

That did not mean however that an alliance with him was to his tastes. This Kain, the vampire who claimed to be from the future really expected him to believe that he had changed? That he wasn't the power hungry madman Vorador had known, that he was trying to make amends and on top of that…was the Scion of Balance? It was far too impossible to believe. Vorador had scoffed at the ancient predictions. None of them had ever come true…until now that is.

His large ears stood to attention all of a sudden, picking some tiny sound up. It was a metal clank made as a boot clad in armour pressed down on some dying flora. Quickly, he teleported away from the mansion to the balcony overlooking the back of his estate, from where he had heard the sound come from. From here, all he could see was his own estate grounds, rotting, becoming browner and browner as the days wore on. The well near his crypt had dried up long again and the mighty stone wall surrounding the gardens had been torn down by the relentless attacks by the swamp. There was no one there. Those he had brought back had retired into the manor itself until they went off to other places they could be of use.

Perhaps he had just been jumping at shadows…but in Nosgoth, shadows could quite often do quite a lot to hurt you so he thought it merited investigation. The sounds of armoured footsteps did not bode well in the third age of the Sarafan.

Finding nothing in or around the outer walls, Vorador turned his attention back to his grounds. All he had to do was glance around. Anything anyone could hide behind had long since rotted away. Just to make sure however, he searched the area magically, in case some Sarafan mage had concealed a troop behind a spell of invisibility. They had been known to do that from time to time. Again, he found nothing.

His senses weren't often wrong, almost never. Perhaps, he thought to himself, he had grown paranoid over the centuries. Turning, he went back towards the mansion. He paused in mid stride, there is was again, only this far closer. Instead of turning, the ancient vampire remained perfectly still. Waiting, testing the surrounding area with his own heightened senses, probing for whatever was trying to make a stealth attempt around his own grounds, he observed all that tried to approach.

Whatever it was, it was certainly swift and was using the shadows around it to it's fullest advantage. There…that metallic clank again. Now he could hear the breathing, but wait…that didn't sound human. It was far too quick and ragged. More like that of a…of a wolf.

Something occurred to him and quickly he glanced upwards towards the sky. He sighed outwardly in announce. There was enough of the moon tonight for it to be considered full.

A second later, a dark blurred shape came hurtling over the wall to his left; flying through the air like the wind itself. Vorador simply shot around and grabbed the thing in mid air using his telekinesis.

It was a Werewolf all right….only part way through it's transformation too.

This wolf was recognised at once. The green eyes slowly turning yellow, the red flaming hair, even the armour he had left the mansion in. His feet were still in the armoured boots he wore, but were beginning to slip off as his heals thinned and his skin began sprouting fur.

"So you got bitten?" Vorador asked; sounding amused as the half transformed Ewoden thrashed about in mid air, his human mind no longer in control of his actions. A second later, his travelling companion; the vampire Sally came floating over the wall. Well, not so much floated as tumbled. She'd been hard pushing herself to keep up with the former Sarafan.

"My lord." Sally began, bowing in the presence of her sire, although clearly out of breath from the chase. Vorador glanced her over for any bite marks but encountered none, neither did he see any blood on the fang like teeth Ewoden was now displaying as he howled, desperate to be free from the ancient vampire's telekinetic grip.

"I take it you found the Seroli?" He asked as he walked back towards the mansion with the former Sarafan in tow in the air.

"Yes my sire." Sally replied, following her sire up towards the ruin house. Around her shoulders she was wearing the shredded remains of the cloak she had left with, what was left hanging to her waist but not enough to cover the collection of scrolls she had tucked under one arm, all tied together with a leather strap and sealed with red wax.

"I look forward to seeing what my old comrades have to say." Vorador began with a short grin. "But first let's deal with this." The ancient vampire stated as he pushed the back door to his mansion and with a brief gesture of his hand towed Ewoden though into the dimly lit hallway. Once beyond the moon light, the curse of the wolf began to reverse itself. The fur receded back through the skin and the face twisted back from a snout to its original human nose. The tail that had been beginning to grow out from between the cracks in his armour disappeared and the former Sarafan was left human again. Once that was done, Vorador released his grip and the human dropped the floor with a loud clanking thud.

"We got caught out in the moonlight on the way back sire." Sally explained. "Ewoden got bitten by a werewolf on the road outside Stahlberg."

"That I can see." Vorador replied as Ewoden looked around in a daze, as if walking up from a dream. The ancient vampire had not much sympathy for the former Sarafan on this issue. If he was stupid enough to let himself get bitten then he deserved everything he got. "Well, as long as he's kept indoors on full moon's there should not be many problems." He turned to face Sally completely. "Now, I believe you have something for me?" Without hesitation she handed him the scrolls she carried.

"Ramek called these the Lupine Gospels. It's a record of their seer's visions and prophecies before the last of them died out over a thousand years ago."

"Ramek?" Vorador repeated. He knew that name. When he had been human, a student receiving tutorage from both vampire and Hylden one of his 'classmates' had been a young man called Ramek. Could it really be the same person? Vorador held felt sure any Seroli from the ancient times was long since dead…after all, immortally wasn't part of their curse. "Go…feed. I summoned a fresh batch of blood this morning." He told her. "And there's fresh breed in the kitchens for you. Or perhaps you'd like to go back into the swamp and hunt live game?" The ancient added with a short grin gesturing to Ewoden, who was looking rather flushed after nearly transforming completely into a werewolf. The former Sarafan cast him a soft glare.

That form he had assumed had nearly been the whole thing. Had he stayed in exposure to the moonlight any longer than that then he would have transformed completely. Sally bowed respectfully and quickly tugged Ewoden by the arm away through a doorway.

Vorador was aware they had shared a link through the Whisper. They had tried to keep it secret, something the two of them could enjoy privatly, but Vorador's senses were too highly attuned for something like to escape his notice. The very notion of a human and a Sarafan could be lovers still shook him to the core, yet the two of them were living proof it was possible.

Quickly the Ancient retired to his study, brushed all the other papers off the deck and placed the scrolls on the empty space. On the red wax seal was the impression of a wolf's head. This was from the Seroli for certain. Breaking it open, Vorador unfolded the scrolls and laid them flat. They were written in the ancient tongue, but since it had been Vorador's original language he found it was not too difficult to translate.

Skimming through it, the ancient looked over records of the first Seroli seers and their predictions. Most of it was the regular ramblings one might expect from those practicing foresight. But eventually he came to a brief paragraph that interested him. According to the scrawled date, this had been written two years before the start of the great war.

"One wielding blood and soul shall rise and be one and not of time." He repeated, reading the passage word for word. That certainly sounded right so he carried on. "Eight companions shall he have and they shall be one and not of time. Overcome deception of time and guise of death shall he, Scion of world's hope. Lies and treachery shall he slice through with blade of first born soul.

Warrior of neither demon nor angel, but liberator of all shall be he." Vorador paused and put to talons to his chin, sighing deep in his throat. Well he had a cryptic message, but not a lot he could do with it. Seer's had an annoying habit of putting their prophecies into annoying and vague phrases. Assuming Kain was the Scion of Balance and the saviour this passage spoke of, then he would have eight travelling companions to go with him making a total of nine.

**_Nine…_**Vorador blinked in realization. Nine of them? One for each pillar? But what did 'shall be one and not of time' meant? He carried on reading. "Mistake of time, once written shall be erased and the boy who would be tyrant shall be murdered and then find salvation by the same hand." That bit made even less sense than the first.

Until he knew more about this, then he resolved that he would not tell Kain about this. Not yet. Not until Vorador himself could see what practical use it could be of.

There was a faint twinge in the air and Vorador felt someone materialize out of a translocation spell. Kain had returned.

Rising, Vorador disappeared in the midst of his own magic and then reappeared at the place he felt the first spell end. He found himself in his greenhouse of all places, although the plants he had once tended had long since rotted away. To the ancient's surprise, Kain was no where to be seen. Suddenly, something lashes out from below and grabbed his ankle. A second later, Vorador's blade was in his hand and he was preparing to slash down at whatever held him. Then he saw that holding onto his boot was a cloven hand with a leather gauntlet attached to it.

"Vorador…" a weak voice began. Glancing down the arm to its owner, the ancient saw Kain lying on the ground, blood as black as the night sky bubbling on his lips. His free hand was barley holding onto the Reaver's hilt.

"What creature did you try to drink from?" Vorador asked, helping Kain up to a sitting position using telekinesis. Now he was off his front, the ancient could see the extent of the damage. Kain had been poisoned, very badly and it was spreading through his body. His skin was pale and almost turning purple which was an unnatural colour, even for most vampires.

-Janos- Vorador sent the summons through the Whisper to his sire who was somewhere within the manor grounds. There was a brief moment of silence and the winged vampire replied.

-Yes Vorador, I am here.-

-Kain has been poisoned sire.- Vorador told him quickly. –I need your help-


	21. Chapter 21: Kain

Chapter 21:

Kain

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-

The first bubbling sensations of consciousness came slamming into me like a tidal wave and my eyes snapped open. My vision blurred for a moment, before I blinked to clear it. It was then I found myself staring at the plain stone ceiling, ugly cracks spreading across it's surface. Sitting up quickly, I looked around my new surroundings. I was back Vorador's mansion, in one of the guest rooms. I had been here before. Once these chambers housed some of the ancient vampires most seductive brides, his concubines, but all of them were gone now, dead or taken flight. The Soul Reaver lay on table next to my bed, the eye sockets of the skull hilt glowing softly blue. Vorador had been gracious enough not to take it while I was out.

-So finally you awaken- Raziel remarked from within the blade as I swung my legs over the side of the bed and tried to rise. I found my own strength sufficiently depleted and I had to sit down again. – You're weak from lack of feeding- My first born added as if sensing my next question.

-How long have I lain unconscious?- I asked him telepathically, feeling a sudden well of sickness flood into my stomach.

-Three days.- Raziel told me but with a more humoured tone than I found comfortable. –You had enough Mana left to teleport back to Vorador's estate. Sabre's blood, whatever was in it, acted like intense venom. Had it not been for the treatments Janos gave you…- He left it hanging in the air, leaving the ending of that sentence up to my imagination. Looking to my side, I found a pitcher sat on the table next to the Reaver with a goblet ready. Looking in I discovered it full of fresh blood, my reflection staring up at me from the scarlet surface. Quickly I poured myself a drink and let my strength return. Magically summoned blood was never as satisfying as fresh game but it did the trick. After drinking half the pitcher, I felt enough of my strength in order to walk without loosing my balance. The room Vorador had so…kindly… let me use was not one he had taken time to refurbish in the last hundred years. The carpet had rotted away and the silk curtains were rags of their former splendour. Most of the furniture was filled with woodworm holes and the floor boards creaked loudly as I walked over them. The whole dismal place was lit only a single glass lantern.

The door at the far end of the room creaked open and Vorador was standing there beyound it with one hand on the door handle.

"Ah, you are awake." He remarked striding into the room. "I hope you'll be more picky about what blood you try to drink in future." I ignored his jest and set him a cold stare. "I hope your trip was memorable?"

"If nothing else." I replied. "I believe I found that clue to the Sarafan's new magic you were so keen to obtain." Vorador raised an eyebrow questioningly. "You said no vampire got close enough to one of them to see how they used their sunlight enchantments. I have."

During the battle with Sabre, I noticed that the runes engraved in his armoured chest plate would glow blood red whenever he employed some form of sunlight magic. Whether it was his wings or simple a blast of light, those runes would always be lit up. Vorador put a finger to his chin thoughtful, pondering this information.

"Enchanted armour?" He mused out load, eyes darting from left to right as if searching the roof for answers. "That narrows it down quite a bit Kain. I was sure that some relic they wore had something to do with it, now that I know it's their armour I should be able to investigate even further."

"I'm thrilled for you." I muttered sarcastically. "I also had a pleasure of meeting their commander." The ancient looked up in surprise.

"You met Sabre?" He asked. I gave him a very brief account of our duel and I left out the parts I felt he did not need to know about, like the Sarafan warrior being a servant of the Elder God and not being human. "And the sunlight magic didn't work on you?" His tone was that of genuine surprise.

"Sunlight can't hurt me anymore Vorador." I stated fixing him with a steely glare.

"It should have," The ancient replied flatly, matching my own glare with one of his own. "I've seen other ancients burn instantly under this new magic, and yet; if you are to be believed, it had no effect on you." I laughed once in my throat and walked past him to the open door.

"I'm not that easily to destroy." I paused at the doorway. "Did you discover anything of interest for me while I was away?" Vorador forged a smirk.

"Several things." He told me, catching up to my side as I walked out of the room. "But first, tell me; did you uncover anything of the Druids?" My descriptions once again brief, I told him what I had learned from the Seer and Princess Alicia. It wasn't much in my opinion, but clearly it surpassed any intelligence Vorador had been able to gather on them.

"As for this icon the Druids gave the Sarafan to secure their alliance, the Princess had not this information." The alliance between the Sarafan and the Druids themselves had been born very reluctantly and the Sarafan had only agreed to it when the Druids handed them an object, something of great important. It was imperative, at least in my opinion, that that something was uncovered.

"Can we trust her?" I managed a grin at his question.

"No. But she won't betray us to the Sarafan, of that I can vouch." Vorador fixed me with a quizzical glare. "She's very strong willed and ambitious. Her desire is to return Willdendorf to the times of the Great Lion and if I read her motivations right, she'll lead the people in a rebellion against the Sarafan to get it."

"And stab us in the back to get it if need be." I nodded once at his statement. The girl was allying herself with us as a means to an end. She could not achieve her own goals as long as the Sarafan remained in power and with their grip on the land tightening, she needed warriors. Who better than vampires, the sworn emeny of the order?

"Per chance, you managed to contact the Seroli while I was away?" Vorador told me that Ewoden, the former Sarafan knight, had retrieved some scrolls from one of their elders. The Lupine Gospels they were called and according to the ancient vampire, it may contain information about the true nature and purpose of the Scion of Balance. Although he was still working with it's translation, he would let me know once he procured anything of use.

"I should be done soon enough." He told me, his golden eyes darting to the window and the ruined estate just outside. There was something in his voice that told me he was holding something back. Per chance, he already had sufficient information but did not trust me enough to share. I did not speak of it to him; I had more pressing concerns at present.

"And the device needed to open the canister?" That was a top priority for me. I had come to Vorador and completed his errand for that very purpose.

"I have a rough location in mind." The ancient replied, two fingers on a cloven hand placed on his chin in thought. "It will be impossible for you to get to it though."

"Just tell me where." Vorador stopped by a large window that gazed out across the front of his grounds. Once, a magnificent garden had stretched all the way down to the iron gate at the far end. Water channelled from the swamp ran through a filter and came out fresh and clean in a selection of ponds. I presumed he had had it installed before he had accepted the Dark Gift. Now, there was only cracked stone and stagnant water; all the abundant plant life long since withered away. Only a few thorn ridden vines clung like a cancer to the decaying brickwork.

"Most Hylden Settlement and cities were destroyed during the wars." Vorador began, his arms folded behind his back. "The only dwelling I had previously known off was the Device, the massive construct under Meridian. However, through my contacts in the western lands I have heard of another ancient ruin that may hold such a device." He paused, watching the sky darken slightly, the distant crackle of thunder resonating in the distance. "West of the town of Steinchenchroe lies the lake of tears. One of the very few vampires in the area had reported that the locals talk of a city they see while in their fishing boats."

"And you believe this ancient ruin to be of Hylden origins?" I asked. Vorador nodded once in reply.

"Humans see Ancient vampire ruins all the time. They litter the land. They took note of this one as it clearly had different architecture. Also, my research had been able to confirm that the Hylden did indeed have a complex in that region, but was swallowed in a flood caused by the ancient vampires. A flood that made the lake of tears." This certainly made my task infinitely harder. Water was acidic to vampires and immersion in it could kill them. If the device I needed to open the canister was there, then it lay presently beyond my reach. Ironically, Steinchenchroe had been inside the clan territory of my son Ruhab; the only vampire who ever managed to evolve an immunity to water's touch.

I had never evolved that immunity.

"I will go there to confirm it." I told him and began to walk away. Vorador watched me go.

"And I will see what I can do with those leads you gave me." I ignored his statement and carried on. "Be warned Kain, one of my agents reports activity at the ruins of Dark Eden." I stopped there and listened. "Rumours abound that your younger self is preparing for an attack on the Sarafan armies hunting for him in the north; also they tell of the appearance of six vampire warriors arriving on the front. They single handily defeated an entire legion of the Order's best infantry. Know anything about that?" I managed a smile. It seemed that part of history had not been distrusted at least. Before being chased out of the south, I must have found the Sarafan crypt and the bodies of the inquisitors lain therein. I was witnessing the birth of the clans all over again. I left Vorador's question unanswered and walked away.

I did not leave the mansion right away it pains me to admit, but instead I went straight to the main bed chamber. My better judgement told me that I was being deceived by the ancient vampire, that it had been a mere illusion meant to stir my conscience. But even if it had been, it had still allowed me to see her face. I had lived for thousands of years with only her in my memory.

I pushed the door open, half expecting to find the bed empty. Just as before, there she was. Lain out on the bed and hair let out of it's usual pony tail. Her cheeks were still rosy, someone had taken up feeding her at regular intervals.

Through my mind ran memories as I watched her. From the very first time I saw her waiting for me awakening in the depths of Meridian, to the moment I slashed her across the throat. That last memory stung painfully, but I embraced it none the less. I would not pretend I had not committed that act, but would not attempt to justify my actions either.

I suddenly became aware that I was not the only one here. The other had made no attempt to hide himself and I had only missed his presence as my attention had been diverted. Janos Audron was sitting in one of the few good chairs left, his golden eyes fixed directly on me with an unblinking stare. I matched it with a sharp gaze my own and for a while, not a single word passed between us.

"I was confused at first, as to why Vorador would take such an interest in this female. Many of his agents have died in their duties and he never paid them a second thought." The winged vampire told me, his eyes darted momentarily to the bed. "He would not talk of it and I would not ask him, but then I know him well enough that I do not need to. I have been able to summarize that, this particular female had special significance for him. Deep feelings that demand him regarding her in this fashion." My stare remained fixed.

"He's in love with her?" I asked. Janos sighed out through his nose.

"Yes I suppose. Not that type of love if that's what your thinking Kain. The affection and attachment of a father to a daughter is perhaps more accurate." I looked down at her. The notion that this was an illusion was beginning to melt away. "Vorador told me about your connection with this one Kain." Janos added. Again that sting came again, unbidden and powerful; the very image and feeling acting like a poison far more potent that the blood of Sabre. "I will not judge you based on that single act and my faith in a higher power is somewhat lacking at present so I won't say there will be another to judge you. But what I will say is this." He pause to look me straight in the face. "It is never too late for redemption."

Without a word, I dissipated into bat form and vanishing out the open window into the sky.


	22. Chapter 22: Ewoden

Chapter 22

Ewoden

* * *

In the dungeons and other dank chambers below the Mansion lay the present base of operations for the Cabal, the vampire resistance. Even with the Sarafan Lord dead, the Order did not disappear as first theorized and so the resistance had had to adapt itself to the reality of the situation.

Scattered through Willdendorf were many safe houses and places to hide resistance activity from the Sarafan, but the real activity took place here. Ewoden sat and watched it all from a distance with an unreadable expression on his face. That was feigned, what he felt inside was an awed respect for it all. He was from an age where the Sarafan, backed completely by all of Nosgoth mercilessly hunted the vampire race to near extinction. Not once had he ever expected to find humans and vampires collaborating together for any purpose, yet it was all right in front of him. Humans spies working for Vorador were here in their dozens. Some had been rescued from execution while others had had to leave their safe houses as Sarafan power grew in the east.

"Ah you must be the Ewoden I've heard so much about." A voice began. The former knight looked around to find a fledgling vampire walking in his direction. He appeared to be about twenty with pale grey skin, untidy raven black hair hanging form the top of his head. At his side were a pair of curved swords in a sheathe that crossed each other in his belt. "It's not everyday I meet an actual Sarafan defector. Stories pass of a few who defect, but they always end with them being hung for treason publicly. I'm surprised you're still alive."

"Sometimes, so am I." Ewoden replied with a short sigh. The vampire regarded him callously for a moment with a disconcerting eye. "And just who are you?"

"My name is Archimedes." The vampire replied flatly. "As one of the Cabal's best infiltrators I'd like to know exactly how much of an asset you're going to be." Ewoden did not reply. He kept his gaze locked out in front of himself, his flaming red hair hanging over his face. "You should be able to see by now we've little reason to trust Sarafan, even deserters." Yes, he had noticed that by now. Even the humans working in the Cabal cast him scared glimpses now and then, terrified by the sight of him.

Even if it was outdated, the armour he could was clearly that of the Order. He almost began to wish he had kept the Wraith armour Vorador had leant him.

"Perhaps I'll surprised you." Ewoden told him. Archimedes managed a smirk.

"I'd like to see that." He replied, before walking away. Ewoden watched him go before sighing. He didn't fit in his in century, not at all.

What bothered him the most was his new…condition. Strangely the notion of being a werewolf itself did not frighten him as perhaps it should. What worried him the most was that excitement that came with the change. Caught several times out in the full moonlight, he had come dangerously close to transforming completely. During these stages he had felt a pull, a need and strong desire. There was hunger for flesh there, but overshadowed by the adrenaline running through his veins. He had wanted to hunt so badly it hurt when either Sally or Vorador had dragged him out of the moonlight.

What the alarming thing was that even now, the nearest full moon weeks away, that pull was just as strong as ever. He doubted, when the time came, he would be able to stop himself from walking willingly out into the light of the full moon.

"There are worse curses you know." Sally told him through the link they shared; her thoughts projected into his mind by use of the Whisper. He looked up and sighted her across the chamber helping to organise some of the humans with new destinations and tasks. "Besides, It's all about perception. It's not a curse unless you view as such." Before he could answer telepathically a hand laid itself on his shoulder.

Looking up, he saw Vorador standing behind him.

"Come with me." He said simply and walked towards the stair leading up into the manor itself. Without saying a word Vorador followed. "There is something I think you should see." As soon as they were out of sight of the others working Vorador laid his hand on the former Sarafan's arm and instantly the two of them were engulfed by the white haze of a translocation spell. The nothingness dissipated and Ewoden found himself standing in a very different location.

Vorador had taken the both of them to one of his outposts. The forest and swamp were littered with ancient vampire ruins and the battlements from one of these was still intact on the edge of a cliff that overlooked the eastern edge of the forest. Most of it was covered in thick moss and vines, the only evidence other than the stone floor beneath their feet that anything had been built here was a stone rail on the edge. One of the ancient vampires' lookouts, a fledgling wrapped in a thick black cloak to protect himself from the setting sun crouched on the top of a crumbled stone base looked back as soon as they arrived and then bowed in the presence of his sire.

None of this was what drew Ewoden's immediate attention. "What do you make of this?" Vorador asked looking out towards the wastelands north and east of the forest edge.

An army on the march, the sounds of their in time foot steps resonating across the sky as they got closer. There had to be at least ten legions of infantry in that walking mass, escorted on either side by Calvary, those at the front horses brandishing pikes and those at the back with ordinary swords Every horse laden with ceremonial colours of the Order.

The rear infantry were Elites, their red capes easily identifiable even from this distance. Behind them were unarmed men dressed in robes, mages definitely, probably no more than fifty of them. Mixed in amongst those on foot were marksmen, all armed with either long bows or crossbows.

Their path would bring them into the northern canyons, right on the fronts lines and a near stones throw from Dark Eden. Ewoden had only see this many soldiers assembled in one place once before, when he himself took part in one of the original Order's campaigns. There had to be over half of the Sarafan's whole army there. They must have emptied every garrison north of the city province to get that many. They wouldn't risk deploying that many men, weakening their own hold in the east unless they knew for certain where Kain and his army were hiding. The vampires were going to have one hell of a fight on their hands if that behemoth of men reached the front lines.

"They intend to crush an enemy and quickly." Was all Ewoden could say, which of course was a no-brainer.

"Most of them appear to be regular infantry my lord." The scout told Vorador, balanced perfectly on the edge of the obscured battlements. "I can also see several squadrons of Glyph Knights."

"What about Sunlight Warriors?" The ancient asked. Those armoured barbarians had decimated the vampires armies, forcing them north and into that hole. If there were any more, then they wouldn't need all those men to inflict damage. The scout looked out again, then shook his head.

"I can't tell from this distance sire." Ewoden looked out at that impressive display of imperialism and he was reminded intimately of what the Sarafan were all about. Establishing order, their order, at any cost. Vampires, Werewolves, even Hylden simply provided a convenient excuse for them to strengthen their armies and oppress the citizenry. They spoke words of peace, security and prosperity when behind closed doors they were power hungry barbarians.

"Er… Vorador…" The former knight began, catching sight of some activity. Vorador followed his gaze to see that some of their number had stopped on the outskirts of the forest while the rest had marched on. There had to be a hundred infantry in that group and those with the red capes, those Glyph knights, there were about ten of them. A group of men joined them and judging by the fact they wore leather armour instead of chain mail; they had to archers and crossbowmen. A relatively small group compared to the rest of it.

"What are they doing?" Vorador wondered out load, looking puzzled. Suddenly, about ten of them approached the trees and raised their hands simultaneously. Instantly, their body were surrounded by a blood red glow that pulsated in the dim light.

"Mages…" Ewoden muttered. The Sarafan were not against using magic to defeat their foes and often their companies were escorted by sorcerers. The Mage's made some gesture with their left hands and instantly the warriors around them began glowing, their forms engulfed by a soft yellow glow. A protection spell, to shield their men from long rang attacks such as arrow bombardments or destructive magic. They were preparing an attack, but on what? There was nothing here….accept them. Ewoden caught a frog in his throat at the thought.

"You don't think they know we're here?" The scout asked Ewoden, sounding a little nervous. Vorador shook his head, although his expression showed that he too found this puzzling.

"If they do, then why mount an attack in twilight and with such a small force?" He asked, but clearly he was talking to himself when he did. Sarafan attacked vampire targets during the day so whatever force inside would be weakened by the light. "That march would have attracted attention for miles around. If they wanted to attack us as well they'd have tried to take us by surprise, not give us warning and time to prepare, and then try to insult us with that few a men." The first of the infantry entered the trees; a stead march in rows. The Knights came second with the Mages and Marksman taking up the rear. They did not try to conceal their presence at all. They simply began hacking their way west through the trees. In the general direction of the mansion. If they made any more noise they were going to attract all the mutants that lurked in the undergrowth. The Sarafan, barbarous as they were are better tacticians than that. "A military blunder like this don't make any sense unless…" He paused, horrific realization suddenly flooding into his eyes. Ewoden read the expression and suddenly that realization became infectious.

"It's a division!" Snapping around Vorador stared off towards the spires of his manor in the distance. Then he grabbed Ewoden and instantly the two of them disappeared into another translocation spell.

Nearly at once they reappeared in the grounds of the estate. The humans and vampires who could stand the faint light were already out. The march had attracted their attention and were already fortifying the place as best they could.

"We set up the barricades sire." Archimedes said as soon as he saw Vorador, gesturing behind him to the thick row archers posted long the eastern wall of the estate, concealing themselves as best they could. The force moving through the forest towards them was too large to take on directly. Their tactics would be to snipe them from their hidden positions before engaging in stealth, luring several off from the main group at a time to lower their overall numbers. They could see the approaching small army from here and where preparing for it, swords, axes and other weapons were out at the ready. Even human Cabal collaborators were there arming themselves to fight along side the vampires. "If they do attack, then we'll be able to hold them off long enough for the supplies and agents in the tunnels to escape."

"The attacks coming from two sides." Vorador hissed angrily. "It's a division! They'll be marching on us from the West as well!"

What happened next was a blur, all happening so fast it was impossible to prepare. The attack came so swiftly over the back wall there could have been no way to defend against it. No arrows or swords came rushing towards the unsuspecting vampire resistance; but rather a furious whirlwind of darkness. Blood arched into the air and fell like rain and those lucky enough not to be at the back of the line turned their attention away from their barricade to the attack coming from the rear. Their attackers were not human and they were moving so fast no body could see what they where. One brief flash of shadow and trailing darkness broke through the gore that was quickly consuming those trying desperately to defend themselves. A triad of glowing violet eyes glared at them all from out of the gloom.

"Shades!" Vorador declared as he drew his sword; the blade hissing angrily as it was released from it's scabbard. Their numbers went into the hundreds before Ewoden could reach for a weapon. Within seconds seven vampires lay dead on the ground while the other defenders were being forced back towards the manor house itself.

"How did they know we were here?" Sally screamed, her throwing daggers lancing through the air; striking two of them directly in the middle of the head. To her horror the objects just passed right through them as if they weren't even there. "We've been betray…" A voice cried out, before being silenced with a short screech as the speaker was cut to ribbons by sharp almost invisible claws.

"Get the agents out!" Vorador commanded, jabbing a talon towards the mansion. "Use the tunnels, run!" A second later, a loud crash resonated through the air and Sarafan Warriors began pouring into the estate through the demolished front gate, their swords drawn. The Mages that accompanied them separated into two groups, two of them maintaining the magical shields around their comrades with several others marched forward and began firing fire balls spells directly into the retreating vampires, ignoring the shadow creatures completely.

"There is the Fiend!" One of their Elite stated, pointing off towards Vorador as the ancient fought against several Shades all at once, but even his skills were having trouble keeping up with so many.

"Fell the beast!" A second stated, gesturing to the crossbow men at his side. Instantly they raised their weapons and took aim. Vorador looked up just in time to see the silver bolts an inch away from him and half a moment later, they struck; two sinking their sharp ends into his leg; another into the side of his head and three more down his arm. The impact knocked him sideways and left him open to an attack, the Shades were on him instantly, claws tearing his clothes and flesh.

"Vorador!" Archimedes cried, rushing over to his sires side; running through one of the creatures with his sword in the process; slicing others aside with a swing of his second blade.

"Die vampire!" A voice declared behind him and before the young fledgling could beat a path to his master, a thick rune encrusted sword rammed itself through his stomach; the tip blunt tip bursting forth through his front.

"Get off him!" Ewoden yelled as his axe Malice came slamming down hard against the Elite, the curved edge sinking into the knight's shoulder. The Sarafan staggered back, gagging blood and was forced to wrench blade free of the young vampire. Archimedes collapsed to the ground, dropping both his swords; trying to stem the thick flow of blood running out from him.

"Collaborator filth! You dare fight for the vampire scum!" Another Elite declared, coming up behind Ewoden with his own thick blade drawn. Ewoden side stepped to avoid a swing, then made a sign in the air with two fingers; calling forth one of the spells Janos had taught him. Elemental water cooled the temperature dramatically around him, the water in the air between the joints of the knight's armour freezing solid in seconds. Trapped in his own armour, the warrior left himself open to a swing as Havoc came arching out. The torso was separated from the waist and another Elite went crashing down in red.

Everything suddenly became a maddened blur as the infantry rushed them and Ewoden was caught in the middle of the fray, swords lashing out at him from every direction. Most blows were absorbed by the armour he wore, but a few swipes cut him across the left cheek and on the right hand. His grip weakened, he dropped the Axe Malice when one of the soldiers tackled him to the ground.

Desperately he struggled against him, but it was quickly over as something hit him hard on the back of the head. There was a moment of stunned detachment an suddenly the world around him shrank away until finally it vanished altogether. Darkness consumed his line of sight and all he managed to glimpse for vanishing altogether was Sally and several other vampires dragging the injured Vorador and Archimedes back into the manor while others laid down a cover fire of arrows. After that, there was nothing.


	23. Chapter 23: Kain

Chapter 23

KAIN

* * *

- 

Steinchencröe had hardly changed, not even after seven hundred years, since my last visit. It remained a pitiful peasant squatting on the shores of the lake of tears. A home for those who could not afford financially or otherwise to live in the more civilized locations in Nosgoth. When the Clans had began dividing Nosgoth it's their territories, Steinchencröe had been on the border between the lands of Ruhab and those of Melchiah. A great deal of arguing passed between the two of them before finally the town was demolished to end the dispute over who owned it.

The stone wall that had once surrounded the village was crumbling into decay now, some parts of it missing altogether. The buildings inside stank of wet wood, even from this range. The sight made the place look as miserable and depressing as it had during my previous visitation.

As Vorador had told me, although I admit I had not taken his word for it, the object I required was well beyond my reach. I stood on the shores of the lake of tears staring out across the waters. Even from here I could see what had grabbed the local fishermen's attention. The fog had lifted over the lake so I could see it well now. A drowned ruin covering the lake bed all the way to the mountains on the other side, some of the turrets of the complex almost nearing the surface.

One glance at them told me confirmed what Vorador had said, that they were not of ancient vampire origin. The architecture was completely different from that of vampires. It was more complex and set in rusted metal rather than decaying stone. I had seen this kind of building before, when I descended into the depths of the giant device beneath the city of Meridian.

I growled in spite of myself. If this was indeed the place that housed the machine I needed to open the canister then my path was impeded. As a vampire I could not touch the water, it would burn me like acid. Until I found a way to travel down there the machine was beyond my reach. Again I had arrived on the threshold of success only to find myself unable of crossing it.

Still, brooding on this would proof useless. Best to make do with the situation as it was. Several miles to the south was the village of Zeigsturhl. It was here the Princess of Willdendorf claimed the Eye of Cult Druids held a significant ppresence, without a Sarafan guard. Deciding to seize this prefect chance to investigate the Druids and the Order's strange alliance, I dissipated into bats and flew through the night bound for the small village.

While in flight I had time to think. My enemy, the god of the ancient vampires was medalling in time, that much had already been proved. How he was doing this without the intervention of Moebius was presently beyond my reasoning. But even if I knew how, it still didn't answer why.

Had my own efforts changed history so much, had it been something Raziel had done through Moebius' manipulation or was the Elder god interfering directly? If the later was the case, then what was so special about this time?

Then it struck me. This was an era of chance, where the power and control of the Nosgoth transferred from humans to vampires. The birth of the clans and my empire, events marked by fate it seemed. It wasn't a perfect recreation by any means, but it was as close to the ancient world as the land had come in eons. The ancient vampires civilisation mirrored in the future.

I wondered if my actions in the past could be changing my empire into something else than what I recalled, something the Elder God could not allow to pass, so it chose to interfere and give to the humans the means to defeating my army in it's infancy.

But this revelation left one more question to be answered. If I was creating a new age, then what could it consist off that would threaten the ancient one so much? Clearly there was much more to learn, and I knew the Druids of Bane and the Eye of God Cult had the answers.

It was nearing dawn when I arrived on the outskirts of Zeigsturhl. Over a few centuries, the town had been….updated. A tall circular stone wall surrounded the settlement, a large iron portcullis baring the southern road and a small gatehouse at the north. Inside the lay of the town seemed vaguely to resemble the layout in had two centuries ago. My bats came together on the roof of a building in the shadows to avoid me being spotted by humans whose tasks required of them an early rise.

For a moment, I sighted the building where my journey had begun. The tavern was still there, even after two hundred years. It was the last place I entered as a human.

I had been on the road all night from the distant town of Coorhagen and had ventured inside for some warming ale. The landlord refused me and I was forced to turn else ware. Waiting to ambush me outside were a small army of hired men, sent by Mortanius Guardian of Death. I killed several of them but their numbers were overwhelming and I was forced to the ground. Before I could rise, one of the brigands drove a sword through my back.

I looked down at the scar on my chest. Despite my vampiric healing abilities that wound, the one that took my humanity had never healed. I suspected it never would. Shaking off bitter memories I slid down the side of the building to a secluded alleyway. Once on the ground, I cast the Disguise spell. Cloaking all humans with another visage, all they saw was another weary traveller making his way into town.

"We're closef, not open 'till seven." Clearly the tavern's hospitality had not been improved as the voice from beyond the closed sign revealed. I looked up at the sun. It was about six in the morning, but I had not intention of waiting for an hour for the place to open. I had other things to do than poison myself with watered down mead and ale, especially from this place.

A stone church stood in the next street and if anywhere, I supposed Druids would congregate here. Quickly I made my way there and entered through a small set of oak doors slightly ajar.

It was amazing how many notions humans have about vampires which were just not true. The sight of the cross can not affect us in anyway shape or form, we DO have a reflection, we can go into anyone's house without being invited and lastly; we can enter a house of god whenever we please. What kept me from simply marching in was concern of magic that could be employed against vampires. If the Druids gathered in within, then they uncertainly shield the building from infiltration by my kind, perhaps making entrance lethal. I waved my hand through the opening, and nothing happened. So pressing my luck a little I stepped in completely.

The only person here was a priest down by the alter, preparing for his congregation that I gathered he expected quite soon. Silently I walked down between the pews, noting that apart lack of guards. My fears of a Sarafan presence were put to rest.

"Morning service isn't for half hour but the house of the lord is open to all at any time." The priest announced as I approached hearing my footsteps on the marble of the alter. He appeared quite young for a priest, probably not even out of his twenties yet.

"As generous as the offer is, I do not require the services of god." I told him. "I am simply here on business." I could sense no one here apart from him, so using telekinesis I shut the church door behind me. The priest looked confused, even startled that a heavy oak door that curved into the church interior had just slammed seemingly by itself. That bewilderment was replaced by terror as I let the illusion fall and he beheld me in my true form. Before he could cry out, I grabbed him by the throat and silenced him. "Now Preacher, hold still." Laying my free hand on his forehead, I telepathically began to pick my way through his memories. This way I could avoid all that tiresome business of interrogation. It was easy for a vampire of my skills to simply take the information they wanted from the minds of mortals. Circumnavigating my way through mediocre nonsense humans throw themselves in, I finally found the subject I desired. As the princess told me, the Druids did indeed have a presence here. Quite a strong one, in fact…if I read this fellow's thoughts right this was a key position for their activity. Strange that they would choose this place, so far away from Sarafan protection. The people of the village and the surrounding settlements knew of their presence but did nothing, out of fear mostly; but a few had been converted to their cause.

Here in the village they met in the tavern…no, a secret chamber below the tavern… no…more than that, the catacombs that ran underground from the nearby cemetery and what was this?… if the priest was to be believed they had a working gateway down there. The ancient vampires created them eons ago to help them travel from one settlement to another, their ruins were littered with them. Most of them inactive, but a few had been able to withstand the passage of time far better. But what did these Druids use it for? This Priest did not know as it turned out he was a low ranking member of their cult and sadly, from his mind I could learn nothing of their true intentions or the nature of their alliance to the vampire ancient god. Having learned all I could from him I let my fangs slid through the skin on his throat.

Once satisfied, I let his body slump to the ground. There would no doubt what he died of and I had no intention of covering my tracks. This would be a message to the Druids. They wanted revenge on the one who defeated Bane? Then they would soon get their chance for I was coming for them.

For over an hour the body of the Priest remained undiscovered, hidden partially behind his own alter. When it was found by those turning up for service, alarms began ringing from the gatehouses on either end of the town. Guards, local militia not Sarafan, turned out quickly to investigate. By noon the news was all over town, there was a vampire about but by that time I had already found the entrance in the tavern cellar to the chamber below.

It wasn't purpose built, but rather a simple back door into a large set of catacombs below. These were burial chambers more than familiar to me, for I had been here once before. They stretched under the ground for some distance, a necropolis existing under the earth and where I was taken for burial. Bones laid out ceremonially for burial greeted me as I descended through a trap door in the roof. The smell of ancient death was pungent, but overshadowed by that of more recent passing. Spider webs ran along the walls and ceiling like a veil and from somewhere nearby I could hear the faint squeaking of rats.

"He is here." A voice stated from around the corner. I stopped dead, listening. Now I could near footsteps and approaching heartbeats.

"I know." The second participant in the conversation stated. "I never thought he would find us in these backwater settlements."

"Are we sure it is the Scion and not some other vampire?" Passing a junction came three humans, all dressed in robes and like the founder of their sect, they wore dear skulls as headdress. The bone and hood from the robes obscured their faces and I was unable to make out any features. Deciding to follow them I called upon the Reaver's power of elemental darkness and turned invisible.

"It is him, just as the master predicted." One of them stated as they traversed the corridors. One of them was holding a torch in one hand to light their way. "And he will be coming for us soon, this is the moment we have been waiting for." Their voices began to dim as they drew away around another corner. Hoping to catch up I quickened my pace, only to find myself at a dead end when I rounded the bend. An abrupt brick wall met me with no sign of those I had been following.

They couldn't have just vanished but there were no tunnels leading away from here. There was more to this then met the eye. I began brushing out the surrounding area with my evolved senses, hoping to find something to explain this mystery. Strangely I found all my attempts reflected back at me. Some source of magic was stopping me, which only meant there was something here someone did not want me to see.

I examined the brick wall before me, looking over each brick in turn. All the other walls were covered with dust and cobwebs, while this one barely seemed touched. That in itself was odd, but when I glanced down at the floor nearby I found that the dust had been disturbed. The markings left showed an archway leaning to the left.

This wall was a hidden doorway of some kind. Naturally I had enough strength to simply break it down, but I did not want the Druids alerted to my exact presence just yet. They already knew I was here.

There had to be an opening mechanism to this somewhere and quickly I found it, a simply turning device disguised to look an iron torch holder on the left hand side. A sharp quarter turn to the right and the sounds of gears turning began to echo behind the wall.

"Another one?" A voice suddenly asked and quickly I backed away from the wall as it swung outwards into the corridor. Advancing through man a guard. He was clad in cheap leather armour and armed with a crossbow. A cloth wrapping was tied around his head hiding his face from the nose down.

"Nah, nobody here." He said giving a brief glance around the corridor. Still under the influence of elemental darkness; to him I was invisible. Slowly I worked my way around him, careful not to make him alert to me at all. Once past him I slipped out into a wider chamber with a tall ceiling above. Another guard in leather armour stood nearby, an iron long sword at his side.

"That door don't open by itself, check the corridors. Could be 'dat vampire they warned us about."

"Alright, 'M going." The first replied with a sour note in his voice before walking off down the way I had come grumbling to himself.

Ignoring the two of them I ventured forth into some very familiar surroundings. The walls, the floor and even the ceiling. A flash of memory burned in my head and a sense of violation welled up resisting my attempts to control it.

Several centuries earlier, the nobleman Kain had been attacked in the town above by brigands, thieves and mercenaries hired by Mortanious. Unable to deal with so many attackers at once, he was murdered. The citizenry of the town gave him the honour of his title by being laid to rest in their greatest crypt.

This was that crypt.

"Desecrators." I snarled, barring my teeth.

The Druids had taken up residence in my own mausoleum.


	24. Chapter 24: Ewoden

Chapter 24

Ewoden

* * *

-

The cell was dank and dark. A spider's web hung across one corner and the only light in the dismal room came from a flaming torch from beyond the bars, nailed to the wall just above a table and set of chairs. A guard was there, his feet up on the table as he flipped through a deck of cards. He was of average height and dressed in leather armour, a steal long sword at his side and the keys around his belt. His jagged brown hair hanging over a piece of dirty clothe wrapped around his head. The man was young, probably no older than 20.

He'd been here when Ewoden first awoke and when they'd dragged him back to the cell. Sarafan knights garbed in full armour escorted him to the interrogators when they were informed he was awake. The interrogators were high ranking members of the Order and Ewoden instantly suspected, of the Eye of God cult Vorador had warned him about.

They asked questions, many questions; questions like, who are the Cabal spies? Do the Cabal and Kain have an alliance? Where is Vorador and his vampires and how did they escape? That at least, gave Ewoden a little cause for hope. Despite the attack on the mansion, the Cabal had been able to escape the Sarafan and their strange allies; those creatures seemingly made of the shadows themselves. Had Sally been amongst their numbers though, there was still doubt there that nagged at him.

When he couldn't, wouldn't or gave an unsatisfactory answer; the torture began. The Order in his time had been ruthless, but this third generation was even more efficient at causing pain. Centuries of practise had given them entire chambers full of equipment designed specifically to prolong suffering and Ewoden found himself subject to about three; one after the other. White hot brandings, on his arms and back came first; the letters **VC** printed in scars. _Vampire Collaborator _he was told it would mean, so all would know that he associated with them. Then the lashings, ten at a time. The whip was a cat-o-nine tails and by the time they were finished it seemed like his entire back was bathed in blood.

That apparently was just to soften him up for the final and more inventive torture session to begin. Mages were called in, two of them grabbed in ceremonial robes and hoods to hide their faces. The knights present forced Ewoden in front of them and then they magic castors evoked a spell of fire and cast it around the former knight. He felt the pain of the flames lashing mercilessly at his skin but no physical harm came to him. The suffering was all in his mind. A relentless burning that seemed to make every sense of being he had bleed. This continued for half an hour, before they stopped and he collapsed to the floor.

They weren't done with him quite yet through. They dragged him over to a pit and made him watch as another two prisoners, a human and a vampire he guessed were strapped onto a metal plate before being lowered down. They were screaming in pain and pleading for mercy, but their cries were quickly silenced as they were cut to ribbons by intricate machinery, blades lancing out from holes in the sides of the pits. Thick rivers of blood ran off the plate and was drained away by pipes to be collected in small bottles. These would be used to keep their other vampires prisoners alive, until it was there turn to die on the machine.

A knight hissed sadistically in his ear; "Unless you tell us what we want to know the next time they ask you, you'll be next, scum." At that point they kicked him around a few times before he was put back in his cell. He didn't fight them, he was to weak. Both physically and mentally. Someone or something had placed a warding around this fortress to ensure that magic, at least that attempted by the prisoners, did not work in his place. So attempts for him to teleport out, or even bring up a magical shield proved useless. Also, it cut off the Whisper. The presence of Sally in his mind which he had enjoyed was gone. Oh, he tried to get through but was met with no reply. Her comforting words or feelings came to him and he was lest alone. The absence of her self proved for disturbing than her intrusions into his mind ever had.

Days wore on, probably a week at least. The only way he could keep track of the days was they brought him a small roll of bread and a single tin cup of water each one. Naturally all of his armour, his weapons and his provisions had been confiscated when he had been brought here. All he was allowed to wear now was a tattered shirt and pants, not even a pair of shoes to protect his feet from the cold floor. He'd expected them to come back before now, but they didn't. Perhaps they were leaving his fear to stew for a while before they questioned him again. He didn't put it past them. His scars, left untreated by a physician, blistered painfully on his skin and by now would be permanent.

Through his mind ran scenarios of what had happened, trying to make sense of the blur. A Sarafan army had marched past Vorador's mansion on it's way to the front lines in the northern canyons and a selection of them had broken off from the main group to march on the estate itself. This in itself was stunning. How could they have know there were any vampires left here, let alone the Cabal headquarters? Then came the true attack, from behind! Creatures born from the very shadows had charged over the back walls and given the element of surprise, they had the Cabal resistance fighting for their lives by the time the Sarafan arrived and after that it was just a blood bath.

Finally they came for him again. Only this time no questions were asked, as if they decided not to waste time and get on with it. Again he endured torture; lashings, beatings, bombardment of hostile magic. Nothing fatal, only practices designed to introduce pain. Then they dragged him back to the cell, neither escort saying a word to him as they pulled him across the floor before throwing him into the cell, locking his arms to the wall and slamming the door shut after them.

That same guard had been here most of the time. Not once did he speak, he kept his attention solely on the book in his hand, his feet up on the table. That is, until now.

"Rekon they'll be calling you back in tomorrow or near enough. Ta day was just ta soften ya up" He stated with a heavily accented voice without looking over as he closed his book and picked up his cards, shuffling them in his hands. "If you really a Cabal spy then ya know they gonna kill yah whether you tell them or not."

Ewoden said nothing. The chains pulling his arms up above his head made it painful to breath never mind speak. Without an opportunity to shave he'd grown a small beard and without anything to heal the wounds properly the lashings were turning into thick scars. "Ya tha first who ain't screamed and begged for mercy by now." He added, finally looking the former knight in the eyes. "I'm impressed, really."

"If I'm going to die." Ewoden began with an unreadable flat expression. The words came painfully but he spoke them anyway. "Then can I at least know where it is I'm dying?" The guard chuckled under his breath.

"Yeah right, like that'll make a difference." The guard replied putting his feet back on the floor. From this vantage point. Ewoden could see a dagger tucked into the mans leather boot.

"Still like to know." The man put the cards down on the table and walked over to the bars. He was about Ewoden's height but his hair cut made him seem slightly taller. A string lined with shells of some kind hung around his neck, directly in the centre of his chest was a large, curved dagger like tooth.

"The western Willdendorf garrison is ya must know." The man told him with a raised eyebrow. "Although I'se fail to see how that gonna help a man in your place." A second later, the door to the cell bay flung open and a knight marched in; his helmet removed and hung on a hook near his belt. He was an Elite as the red cape and the double plume on his helmet showed. His hair was a dirty blond and he hadn't shaved for a couple of days. He stopped outside the cell door and stared right at Ewoden. His brown eyes were full of hatred at he stared. There was something about him that radiated a sense of unrelenting hate, Ewoden felt physically sick in his presence.

"Has he made trouble?" The knight asked his eyes not leaving the prisoner even for a moment.

"No Sir Gaunt." The guard replied. "Hasn't said a word." The fact that the guard lied hadn't registered with Ewoden. He recognised the knight, Gaunt, the former Sarafan summarized. This warrior had been amongst those to attack the Mansion. The knight rubbed his chin with his gauntlet before looking back at the prisoner.

"If I had my way you piece of scum you'd be stretched out on a rack by now having holes cut into your flesh with a blunt knife." His tone as full of venom. "As it is, you're in luck. Tomorrow night you and an assortment of other traitors and bloodsuckers will be taken out into the nearest public square and executed." Ewoden had been expecting that so it came was no big surprise.

"How is that to be considered lucky?" Ewoden asked through half shut eyes. The knight hissed through his nose.

"Believe me heretic, I would much prefer to see you tortured for a full day and finally die screaming under the sword at midnight. That's how lucky your fate is." Gaunt's hand tightened around one of the bars. "You killed my brother. Froze him solid in his own armour with your devilry and then sliced him in half." That part of the battle the former Sarafan remembered. He recalled freezing a knight and then killing him while he was paralysed. "I'll be conducting the hanging personally, so do yourself a favour and break your neck in the noose. It'll save you the pain when I quarter you!" With that, he turned and left; his cloak trailing out after him. The door slammed after the knight loaded, the echo ringing through the cells for a moment or two afterwards.

"I thought you said they wanted to interrogate me?" Ewoden asked the guard, who moved back to his chair.

"Guess they think you're not worth the effort anymore." He replied, putting his feet up on the table again. He paused with his hand on his deck of cards. "Or maybe they think they can use you better by makin' an example outta ya." He shuffled the cards, sighed, and then slid them into his pocket. "Either way you'll be stretched by the neck soon enough."

The rest of the day carried on painfully slowly. Each second like an hour, one after the other, the distance in between them stretching out like elastic. Ewoden had been close to death many times before, but never with such certainty. He was unarmed and unable to use magic; cut off from any assistance he might receive from the Cabal.

The evening came and went and the morning after it just as slowly, as if his perception of the world was forcing him to take a long last look at it.

Well that's it. He thought to himself finally reaching the conclusion with finality. I'm dead.

It was ironic for him. The Sarafan had saved him from certain death in Willendorf when they bought him from the mines and now they were going to execute him in the same province.

He remembered that day well. He was nineteen to the day when Moebius himself came to the mines to personally check the stock of the city province. Choosing Ewoden along with a hundred others, he had carted them off to their stronghold for recruitment into the Order. Despite his many revelations about the true nature of the Sarafan Ewoden still looked back on that day with great fondness.

A loud clanking of a boot brought his attention away from his thoughts. Looking up weakly, he barley even saw the two knights entering the cell. Gaunt was with the, his thick sadistic smile spreading from ear to ear.

"People of the Lion, we are gathered here tonight to bare witness to justice dealt to vermin and those who would seek to aid them in their unholy quest." The preacher was giving the crowd the full works as the small band was marched out of the garrison gates and into the courtyard towards a wooden stage placed in the middle. Ranting on for several minutes on how the brave knights protected the people from the un-dead scourge and how only their faith and compliance would ensure final victory was a priest in white robes standing in the space of a makeshift pulpit up front. From here Ewoden could see the full fortress like garrison, the towers stretching so high they almost seemed to brush the clouded sky above. The flags of the Order fluttering on the tips of the towers.

Not everyone present was buying the sermon, Ewoden could see that from here as the knights marched them forward. Most of the crowd gathered in the courtyard had been forced to come here, in the middle of the night which was the only time their vampire prisoners could be brought outside for execution. Since walking out of those gates, Ewoden had tried to teleport away half hoping the contact through the chains he had with the other prisoners would take them all but it seemed whatever kept magic unusable in the garrison worked out here at well. Attempts to contact Sally over the Whisper also proved futile.

The former Sarafan looked up at the gallows ahead, the noose already hanging in place awaiting it's next neck. That was reserved for the humans, for the vampires in their chain gang was a guillotine, the blade being hoisted into place ready for it's first victim.

Graunt was standing nearby, his hands resting on the hilt of his sword; his blade angled downwards in front of him. A thick and wide smirk was plastered over his face.

"Bring forth the first creature." As the Priest began and the spoilers forced the vampire at the front forward. He was hardly dressed in anything and the scars from the torture secessions hadn't even healed yet. "Before the majesty of god's all seeing eye and the witness of these people, have you anything to confess before justice is served?" The young fledgling looked up weekly but clearly did not have the strength to say anything. "Then so be it, severe his head from his neck and then commit his body to the flames!" The knights began forcing the vampire up towards the guillotine.

Ewoden had to look away, unable to bear the scene. He cast his gaze upwards towards as the clouds began to part to reveal the night sky.

The stars were beginning to peak through, little points of light appearing one by one in a gigantic pattern. But all that was overshadowed by the moon.

The full moon…

* * *

-

Never before in his life had that object looked so beautiful. Despite the decay of the world around him, that shone as brightly as ever, unhindered by any magic in Nosgoth. The moonlight was exquisite, a soft and delicate touch that soothed even the most deep licks of a swords, some of the scars on his body even closing up. Slowly at first, strength unlike anything he had ever experienced before began pouring through his body, his muscles tightening and slowly expanding outwards. His heart pounding inside his chest like a bass drum, each beat like a pickaxe striking stone. With a loud snapping, the iron binding his hands tore and he collapsed to his knees.

"What devilry is this?" Gaunt demanded, nearly dropping his sword and staggering backwards as Ewoden's size began increasing, his feet arching upwards from the ball. The nails on the end of each toe and finger expanding forwards, becoming jet black and serrated claws. The others prisoners, human and vampire alike quickly backed away from him and the guards were too stunned by his transformation to stop them. Every tooth in the former Sarafan's mouth became sharp and dagger like and slowly the face pushed outwards into a snout.

His ears changed first on the face, pushing themselves upwards to the top of it's head and gaining a pointed edge. The green eyes were quickly contaminated and changed to yellow, the pupils mutating to feline like silts. Fur the same fiery colour as his hair began growing out across his back, spreading out like a moss over his torso, then his arms and legs and finally branching out in a bushy tail behind him. The change complete, the mind of the former Sarafan was lost underneath a glossy coating of hungry and animalistic instinct. This new creature stood up on bi-pedal legs and arched it's back, howling into the night; it's outline silhouetted by the moon.

"Werewolf!" One of the crossbowmen shouted, raising his weapon. With speed that defied explanation, the beast darted across the distance between them and sliced the man's armour open with one swipe before he could fire. Knocked off balance, the man staggered backwards and let himself wipe open. The mistake cost him dearly as the wolf ripped open his rib cage with it's claws, crimson staining the air. It's jaws closed around flesh and for the first time, it fed. The feeling of the kill, the life slowly draining through it's claws and then to top it off, the feast. The sensation of raw flesh thick with blood running down his throat, the indescribable thrill of feeling the heart slow to a stop between his teeth. It was exquisite.

The prisoners had run off with the crowds, but the guards were far too preoccupied to notice. Archers raised their bows and fired several arrows at the creature. Irrupted from it's meal, the wolf ducked under the volley before using the momentum in it's legs to leap high into the air.

With the acrobatic skill of a cat it landed on the battlements of the outer wall and started running on all fours along the edge, darting past startled guards who could do nothing to stop it.

"Kill it! KILL IT!" Graunt was screaming from below as he placed his helmet on his head with one hand and grabbed his oversized sword off the ground with the other. The archers were trying, but this creature was just too fast. Sliding on the side of the wall, the wolf leapt through the air and tackled one of the men to the ground, it's teeth tearing out a huge chunk of flesh from his shoulder. The man screamed in utter pain, but that cry was quickly silenced as the wolf broke his break by smashing a paw against the side of his head.

"Perish foul beast!" Several archers managed to get lucky, their arrows sinking into the wolf's back and bedding themselves there. Howling, the wolf wielded on them and charged but was intercepted by Graund; who launched into a ferocious attack with his sword. Not expecting the blow, the creature lest itself open to attack. The searing sting of the blade cut deep into left arm. The sword he was using was made of silver, that was painfully released as the metal stung then flesh like acid.

The creature slid around the distance of the sword's length, striking out with the claws on it's front paws whenever it could, carving giant claw marks down the knight's armour. Piece by piece the beast hacked away, carving it's way to the soft flesh underneath. But finally, the knight scored a blow to the creature's right shoulder forcing it to retreat back across the courtyard. Blood was staining its fur and the wound itself was foaming as the metallic substance burned the allergic flesh.

Hungry would drive the wolf to attack and attack again, but a voice of reason, perhaps what remained of the human half told the beast that risking it was not wise. That sword could kill it. This prey was too well armed, best to travel on and find food elsewhere. Accepting the animalistic logic, the wolf darted to the side and bolted for the gate into the city itself.

"Don't let it get away!" Graund shouted to the archers, to raised their bows and fired another volley, with only one of them hitting the beast on the back of the left leg. Despite a limp it kept going. As the wolf neared the gate, the portcullis came down sharply threatening to cut off it's line of retreat. Despite the nagging pain it's left leg, the beast carried on running as fast as it could. The portcullis slammed into the ground but too late as the tail of the wolf whipped past it and the beast escaped into the city of Willendrof.

Seeing the demonic wolf, it's claws and fur stained with blood, every citizen started running for their lives. Sighting the nearest one, the wolf pounced on the young male; raising it's claws tearing to tear into the flesh. The human screamed and cowered on the ground, eyes transfixed in fear as the beast raised it's claws.

t the last second however, a form came darting out of an alleyway to slam directly into the beast knocking it off the human giving it time to pick itself up and run. Recovering from the blow, the wolf darted back across the street to see what had stopped it. It was another of his kind, another werewolf. The fur on this one was jet black apposed to ginger and hung greasily over the long limbs. The teeth already barred, a warning growl escaping it's lips.

Tolerating competition for food was against every animal instinct running through the creatures body. So it simple spread it's arms howled once and leapt forward blood lust burning in it's eyes. The second wolf met it half way and tackled it to the street.

Sarafan archers had arrived on the battlements above the gate and were armed with silver arrows, several of them al ready preparing shots. Pinning it with it's back legs, the second wolf brought it's arm up sharply began throwing it down in a fist smashing the road, the resonating thud echoing through the streets of the city province. The stone began to crack spreading out like a spiders web before it began crumbling completely as the after math of the shockwave trembled through it. Even before the arrows were away the two creatures were sent tumbling into the darkness of the sewer below.


	25. Chapter 25: Kain

Chapter 25

KAIN

* * *

Perhaps they thought it poetically fitting, or maybe they just trying to spite me. Whatever the cause and reason, they had succeeded in arousing my anger. There are very few places in Nosgoth I considered special, even sacred. I had been laid to rest in this crypt and as far as the world was concerned this was where the Nobleman from Coorhagen known as Kain died and the place where my quest and new life as a vampire had begun. Tolerate the intrusion in this place I would not.

I was tempted, then and there, to drop the elemental disguise of darkness and emerge into the sight of the guards and watch as they chocked on the blood oozing from their necks. The temptation was indeed very strong. But no, I would not claim what I came here for that way. Dead men tale no tales.

As hard as it was, I willed silent the anger and continued on deeper into the mausoleum. More guards in light loose fitting animal skin armour stood at every corner but I sighted no more Druids.

Being in this place felt more like de-ja-vu than any part of my journeys into the past thus far. I had walked these same corridors a millennium ago and very quickly, I found the room in which it had all begun. The stone coffin was still there the lid ajar, still in the same position I had shoved it when I emerged. Untouched for centuries, I stood there staring at it, memories and feelings of that near indescribable moment coming back.

I was used to being a vampire by now but to a human the change is near overpowering. The heightened senses all screaming at oneself, the pounding of your heart in your chest and most importantly; the burning hunger. I could remember the new sensation as precise as if the experience had occurred yesterday.

"I hate this place." A voice from up ahead in the corridor stated; the sound echoing off the enclosed walls. Remaining to the elemental clock of darkness, I inched closer. There was movement at the end of the passageway, limp dimly by a fiery torch. "It's dark, damp and the people here are just plain weird."

"If the gold's good, who cares?" Another asked. From here I could make out two more of the guards. One was large and muscular with the armour on his left arm missing and the other was small and thin and hadn't even got armour on. All he had to protect himself with as an iron long sword at his side. "We do our job, we get paid. Who cares about the working conditions?"

"I do. Think I've caught a cold. My nose is all blocked up." The larger of sniffed loudly, whipping his nose on his sleeve before sneezing.

"Ya Pansy." The smaller one sighed with a hint of disgust in his voice. "What sort of mercenary for hire are you supposed to be?" The larger guard blew his nose on a piece of clothe he'd taken out from his pocket.

"Even the best of us catch colds from time to time." He replied stuffing it back. "It's been an hour hasn't it?" The smaller guard glanced up at the torch, judging how far the fire had burnt through the wood.

"Nah, another couple a minutes I guess. Why? You got some urgent appointment or somethin'?" The larger shook his head as silently I worked my way past them. I could easily dispatch both without any effort whatsoever, but that would alert the Druids and other guards to my presence and I wasn't prepared to reveal myself just yet.

"Nah, just gotta go for a wiz."

Evidentially my crypt was just part of a large underground necropolis that stretched a good way south. From the carvings on the walls at various points I determined that this had it's origins in ancient times, a burial site for humans who lived with the ancient vampires and Hylden. Why here? I kept asking myself. Why would the Druids choose such a place to set themselves up, so far away from their Sarafan allies? What could possible have drawn them to this region?

"Nothing got past us, I'm telling you this old crypt as dead as it always was." A voice from around a stone corner angrily said and I stopped to listen.

"You had best be right." Another speaker stated. "You just make sure you do your jobs while we do ours. We're nearly all gone. Wait for half an hour and then make yourself scarce." There a pause, followed by a loud churning as a pair of stone doors opened up. "May the eye of god be on you."

"Yeah whatever." Still hidden with elemental darkness, I made my way around the corner to face a dead end. The corridor ended abruptly just in front of me in a colossal yet strangely plain stone door jammed shut across my path. Standing guard was a single man. His armour was made of ordinary leather with bracers of brass. A long iron broadsword lay in a scabbard at his side. A single piece of dirty clothe was tied around his face across his nose.

Slowly I eased my way past him and once I was behind the man, I reached around and grabbed him. Before he could cry out I cut off his air supply by wrapping my arm around his throat. As he struggled there turning blue I read his mind. It had bothered me since I got here that the Druids had chosen such a place so isolated to conducted their affairs. From what information I could pick from this dull intellect, I learned that their order had chosen this place as their hideout because of it's close proximity to the Pillars of Nosgoth. They needed to be close to them, but why? This guard wasn't privileged to that information but from he had been able to overhear both the Druids and the Sarafan Order were working together on something that involved the Pillars, something they believed would bright them ultimate victory over the vampires once and for all. What could it be?

The guard didn't even gasp as I slide my talons through the back of his throat. He couldn't they were blocking his wide pipe. Silently he crashed to the ground and lay there, his blood slowly staining the stone.

Ignoring it I turned to the door. This hadn't been here when I was here last. The Druids without a doubt lay beyond it and having past all the guards that could alert them I had no more need for stealth. I cancelled the influence of darkness and became visible again. Telekinetically I called the Soul Reaver into my hand and grasped the hilt I slashed once at the stone.

With a loud crash the door caved inwards in a spray of brick dust.

In the chamber beyond was clearly a crypt chamber of some kind, a large central arena in the middle with a pair of curved stairs leading up to a large arched door on the far end. The ceiling curved upwards into a single point in the centre. Mostly it was empty, apart from the two Druids waiting for me. They were dressed as I observed them before, ceremonial purple robes with antler headdress like that worn by their founder.

"The devil!" One of them shouted, raising his arms up into the air, the swift recital of incantations on his lips even before he'd finished his exclamation. Sliding through the air in mist form I approached him, the Druids fire ball passed right through my being doing me no harm. I solidified before him and without a single word slid the Reaver through his chest cavity. The tip of the blade lanced out his back and he coughed up blood, convulsing before falling limp on the sword.

His companion screamed and ran trying to back a break for the stairs leading up to the doorway as fast as his robes would allow. Nimbly I picked him up using telekinesis and dragged him back towards me, kicking and screaming. His antler headdress fell off revealing him to be an old wrinkled man with a short beard. Desperately he clawed at the floor, scrambling for something to latch onto. He stopped when the tip of the Reaver hit the floor next to his head, gaining his undivided attention.

"Now, old man; I'm going to ask you some questions." I told him, picking him up by the front of his robes. "And if you wish to walk away alive I suggest you answer them truthfully." My lips pulled back over my fangs and I allowed him to get a full view of the sharp incisors.

"Yes, yes! Whatever you want, just don't hurt me!" He whimpered pathetically. A rather shameful display but what I was hoping for anyway. Usually when I wanted to get information I simply read the minds of others, but this one was different. Perhaps it was the location or the fact he was out of his mind with fear but whatever the cause I found it difficult to pull any information out of his brain. I was going to have to rely on old fashioned intimidation for this one.

"First of all, why do the Druids alley themselves with the Sarafan order?" He muttered inconsistently for a moment before my grip tightened. Their alliance needed to be explained. If the Princess of Willendrof was correct then they had been rivals until recently. I wanted to know why they made the alliance at all.

"We were ordered to." He replied simply with fear induced tears running down his cheeks.

"Who by?" I asked him staring him directly in the eyes.

"Grandmaster Sabre." The old man gibbered. "After the Sarafan lord was killed, he forged our alliance with the Sarafan. Handed them the sword..." Sabre was the one responsible for the alliance, and if he was a puppet of the Elder God then clearly this was orchestrated. But the question still remained…. why? Why would Druids take any interest in Sarafan affairs at all?

"What sword?" He demanded. "What sword did he give them?"

"Now that would be telling." A voice stated. Glancing up, I saw another Druids standing at the top of stairs glaring down at me. Unlike the other two, his robes were bright white and the antler headdress was gleaming gold, engraved with red runes down either side.

"Master Aurora!" The old man yelled out. "Help me please!" The Druids aloft simply held up his left hand in response and instantly a bolt of powerful magic screamed from his fingers and struck the old man. I let go and backed off as he screamed, his hair and robes burning away to near nothing. His skin followed, followed by his flesh piece by piece. His throat dried up and turned into ash, silencing his cries before he collapsing into a pile of blackened powder on the floor.

"You'll get no more information from him Kain." The high ranking Druid stated lowering his hand. "My name is Aurora, I'm second in command of the Druids of Bane under Grandmaster Sabre by the way."

"Charmed." In muttered dryly with narrowed eyes; tensing my hand around the hilt of the Reaver sword. "Are you here to fight or gloat?" I couldn't see his eyes but underneath the show his headdress produced I managed to see a thick smile.

"I've no interest in fighting you Kain, and as for gloating, I'm not as conceited and arrogant as Sabre." Aurora waved his hand in the air as if to dismiss some notion he was adopting. "The man's too overly religious for my taste. Well, at least he is now. I can remember when all he was interested in was hunting."

"He appears to have merged the two interests." Aurora paused to consider the statement before chuckling.

"That he has. You're an acute observer." I sensed not hostile intentions in him but that only meant he wasn't going to attack me physically.

"I don't suppose you're going to answer me questions as…" I gestured with my head to the old man's cremated remains on the floor. "… he no longer can." Aurora shook his head crossing his arms inside his robes.

"Oh Kain you should know better than that." I didn't think so. Well, if he was wasn't going to tell me willingly I'd just have to take it by force. I reached out telepathically to see into his mind and was struck down hard by a barrier around his brain that not only prevented entry but retaliated. "Sorry vampire." He tapped the side of his head with one finger. "Druids of certain rank and higher have glamour spells placed upon them to prevent noisy telepaths from going where they're not wanted." Gripping the Reaver in both hands and annoyed by the failed attempt I leapt at him reaching out with telekinesis to hold him in place. Not only did he shrug off the attempt to hold him down but he danced around my swings with inhuman agility.

The Druid backed off through the doorway at the top of the stairs and into a second smaller chamber. On the far end was an arched golden circle that was clearly of ancient vampire origin. It even had an energy orb on the right hand side powering it. It was a transporters gate, used the ancient to move from one settlement to another quickly. "Please don't tell me this is this extent of your skill. If you're meant to be Sabre's challenger at the time of election, I think this is going to be a little too easy." Aurora told me backing off out of sword reach, his foot steps so carefully and expertly placed it appeared as if he were gliding.

"Time of Election?" I repeated facing him. "And just what pray tell is that?" His face suddenly bore a very genuinely surprised look. In fact he looked stunned by my asking.

"You…you mean you don't know?" He asked, before bursting out laughing finding the whole notion incredible amusing. I growled at him. "Oh, this is a delight. Not only are you unimpressive in skill but you're still I the dark about the destiny we all rush towards?"

"I can estimate it has something to do with wgt your lair is so close to the pillars." The Druids stifled his laugher but coughing, placing a hand in front of his mouth.

"Oh, perceptive as well as an acute observer." He clapped lightly. "But since you've discovered us here, we've been forced to move our operations elsewhere. All my kinsmen have already left through the gate. They were quite put out with the decision. A lot of them really wanted to try and kill you." He gestured to the ring behind him. "I am all that remains."

"Then you will be the one to answer my questions." I stated angrily reaching for him with talons outstretched.

"I think not Kain." He told me with a smile, clicking his fingers. Instantly he was surrounded by a white glow. The beginnings of a translocation spell. "Goodbye vampire. We'll meet again soon. Although I doubt you'll enjoy the encounter." He stated before he faded away completely into nothing. The man was gone before I reached him, the white haze vanishing with him.

Some of my questions have been answered, only for more to take their place. This constant search for the truth was beginning to tax my patience. Now I knew for certain it was the Elder God responsible for this alteration in history, although I had still not ascertained the why. I had had a small glimpse of their plans, and they involved the pillars and whatever this… **_'Time of Election'_** was. But still I was for the majority in the dark. Looking up I glared at the gate, hoping that I could activate it to go after the Druids, only to find the orb allowing it to function had been cracked and compromised. The glow inside was gone. The item was useless as was the gate without one. Aurora must have stayed behind to destroy it to make sure I did not follow before teleporting himself away. Ensuring I did not find out about their ultimate intentions before they were ready.

I could sense that guards the Druids had left behind approaching, attracted by the sounds of battle. Infuriated by the escape of my quarry, I simply waited for them. Bolting in through the collapsed door they met their end in a blaze of red.


	26. Chapter 26: Ewoden

Chapter 26

Ewoden

* * *

The shadow of the wolf receded and the rage and instinct faded with it.

Slowly Ewoden opened his eyes and found himself staring up at a pine wood ceiling. Bit by bit, pieces of total consciousness began floating back. Feeling came first, the sensation of the mattress below him. Then sound; low rumblings like distant thunder perfecting into the murmur of nearby voices. His vision cleared and finally he became completely aware of his surroundings. Slowly the former Sarafan tilted forward, hoisting himself up into a sitting position. Pausing just long enough for his head to stop spinning he found himself in a small bedroom. There was a bed side table with an oil lamp placed on it. This is what lit the room for the curtains at the window at the foot of his bed were shut tight. A set of pine shelves stood next to a wooden door, filled to the brim with books. The floor was carpeting red, black rune like patterns running along the outside. It looked like a small bedroom in a gentleman's household.

Ewoden tried to remember what he was doing here, but found himself drawing nothing but a blur of images that moved too fast for him to accurately recollect. The last thing he recalled was being lead outside from the garrison to the exaction ground. The brief image of a full moon hit him hard and instantly he realized what had happened.

The curse of the werewolf had fully taken hold in that moment. That was how he escaped. But… if that was so then what was he doing here? He tried to use magic, to contact Sally telepathically with the Whisper, even teleport away but nothing he did worked. It seemed magic of any kind was as ineffective here as it had been in the garrison. Was he still a prisoner?

Looking around the former Sarafan sighted a buddle of clothes on the bedside table next to the oil lamp. On the other side of which was a basin full of water, the blade for a razor stilling on top of a piece of white clothe. Looking down at himself he realized he was naked and was in dire need of a shave. If this was a prison, it was much more comfortable than the last; even if someone had taken him here in the nip. He shook off the memories of torture and sent over to the basin. While saving he noticed a mirror on the wall in front of him and used it to help clear away the short beard.

The clothes were plain clothe and wool and Ewoden only found enough will to change into the pants to give himself back some dignity.

Glancing up, he heard the murmuring voices growing closer and the rising of footsteps outside the door. Turning he watched it open and a familiar figure walk in. The man had changed his clothing from leather armour to a brown upper society jacket and pants, but he was undoubtedly the guard who had sat outside the former Sarafan's cell in the garrison. Stumbling back Ewoden reached for the razor hoping to use it as a weapon.

"Easy there lad. I'm not here to hurt you." He told him with a short smile holding up his arms defensively. "Seroli look out for one another after all." Ewoden paused, a confused look spreading over his face.

"You're a Werewolf?" His former jailor nodded once.

"One of the resistance members for the Willdendorf Cabal." He stated. "I'm also an Intelligence operative for the Seroli Master-Smith Ramak." Briefly the man glanced over the scars that now decorated the exposed arms of the former Sarafan knight. "I'm sorry I couldn't have gotten you out of that awful garrison before they begun the torture, but any rushing on my part would have exposed us both as Seroli. They wouldn't have hesitated to kill, even if we had information useful to them." A hand extended itself in greeting. "I'm Ral, this is my safe house."

"Safe house?" Ewoden repeated giving the room another glance.

"There are quite a few in the city here and there." Ral explained. "Most of them belong to the vampires but we have a few as well. Not that it 'really' matters who owns them; those who oppose the Sarafan, be they Werewolf, human or vampire is entitled to their safety in any one of them." Even as he spoke; Ewoden's head started swimming. It did about two laps around him and finally he was forced to sit back down on the bed, holing his head in his hands. His stomach had started to revolt as well, twisting itself into knot only experience seamen could tie. "Ah, that must have been your first full change." Ral realized out load. "It's not easy on the system at first but it gets easier with practise." For a moment he disappeared out the door and was not gone long before he returned with a small glass bottle. "Here, drink this." He uncorked the bottle and offered it forwards. Had Ewoden not been sick as a dog he would have questioned the contents of the container, but instead with his head unable to tell up from down he put the bottom top to his lips.

As soon it touched his tongue he could tell it was an alcohol of some kind. It was strong, very strong, in fact he had barley managed a sip before he had to cringe. The stuff had a kick.

"What is that…" He managed to gasp, weekly passing the bottle back.

"Bit of rum, bit of old fashioned mead, Bourdon and all mixed together with brandy." Rei replied putting the cork back in. "Not good on the tongue but it helps the human form digest the meat the wolf forms takes in."

"Meat…what meat?" Ewoden asked. The only thing he'd eaten for a week had been the stale bread the Sarafan had given to him.

"You don't remember?" Ral asked looking a bit surprised. "No… it was your first time so I don't suppose you would." He shrugged and turned to put the bottle down on the bedside table. "And not many first timers take a bite out of a Sarafan guard either." It took a whole five seconds before that information sunk in but when it did, it dropped like a rock. The bits and pieces Ewoden could remember from his transformed state came together briefly to show the blood and large chunks of flesh being torn out from under plates of armour. The sensation of fresh meat sliding down throat and the satisfaction of a successful kill, all sensations recalled animalistic impulses but remembered with human clarity. The shock finally hit home and Ewoden sagged forward, holding a hand to his mouth. Ral recognised the reflex and quickly pulled him over to the window, throwing open the curtains. Ewoden couldn't hold it in and vomited out into the street outside. Someone had been under the window below and just missed being hit with it.

"Hey watch where you're puking ya drunk!" A voice cried up angrily before whoever it was scuttled off.

"Easy there." The Seroli patted Ewoden on the shoulder several times as he gagged there, his arms straining to maintain the strength to hold him up. "You'll have to work on that stomach of yours. You need rest."

"What I need is a cure." Ewoden snapped at him. "I don't want to be this way!"

"Not many people do, but what's done is done. There is no cure." Ral told him helping him back to the bed. "Keep drinking this. May taste like a sword blade but it does help." He passed the brown bottle back to him. "Rest for now. Someone'll be up soon enough to give you a little help later."

"I just want to see Sally." Ewoden admitted out load, his face sunk towards the floor. Ral managed a sly smile.

"Got a sweetheart huh? That'll help more than my special mixture will." With that he was gone, closing the door behind him.

All Ewoden found he could do was sleep. At the moment, he couldn't force anything down his throat. Knowing he had torn off, eaten and enjoyed human flesh and blood convinced him he would never be able to even look at food again.

As if unable to deal with the truth, his mind focused it's attentions to something more pleasant; like the first time he met Sally. Avernus was under attack by demons and Ewoden had taken the opportunity to desert, running for all his life out of the city hoping an archer wouldn't spot him. No archer did, but a fire demon instead. The flaming beast chased the former knight across the plains and into the termagant forest, the trees slowed it's progress down but still it kept coming.

Ewoden eventually slew the beast with arrows before toppling backwards into a pit of quick sand. There he would have drowned were it not for the intervention of Vorador. The ancient had pulled him free, intrigued by the prospect of a human who did not tremble in fear in his presence. Taking him back to his mansion, Vorador decided to test him by locking Ewoden inside his library with one of his vampires; Sally.

She had toyed like him a cat with a mouse and he had been afraid, enduring a game of hide and seek she found amusing. Eventually however he stopped running and faced her, and when he did he saw that she was not the blood sucking monster the stories the Sarafan told made her out to be. She shared history with him for she too had once been a slave in the Provincial mines of Willendorf.

Impressed by the bound developing between them, Vorador took them both to be taught arcane science and magic under his sire; the legendary Janos Audron. There, they had stayed for the duration of their studies, growing closer and closer until eventually becoming lovers. Then their happiness was shattered when the Sarafan hunted Janos down and removed his heart, leaving them both without a mentor and a home. Disheartened and despised his affiliation, even past, with the Sarafan; Ewoden took to wandering the north of Nosgoth alone leaving Sally back in the service of Vorador.

An hour ticked by perhaps as he lounged in the state between awake and asleep but when someone opened the door to the room, the faint traces of morning were lancing into the room from the window.

"Oh, so it is you." A familiar voice stated. Ewoden looked up sharply in remembrance, seeing a tall man was standing in the doorway. The animal skin armour and metal plated armour had gone replaced by more mediocre clothing but it was still him. Mostly bald, with a single untidy Mohawk running from the back of his head to his temples; scars were the blades of an axe and a dagger had struck him still lanced down his face and across the side of his neck.

"Obelisk?" Ewoden asked sitting up. The large man nodded before entering the room completely. This was the Werewolf Sally and he had fought on the road north, the one who had bitten him. As much as Ewoden hated this new curse he felt no ill will towards the one who had given it to him. Perhaps that was part of the curse itself but whatever the reason Ewoden just couldn't hate the man.

"How was your first hunt?" The large man asked casually. Ewoden did not reply. "Fine then, I can see you're the kind of person who gets right down to business." He paused, sighed and then admitted. "Truth is you've been brought here to be part of the resistance."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Part of the new Werewolf resistance to be accurate." Oblesik continued. "Ramak and the other Master Smiths have decided they can ignore this new Sarafan threat no longer. They came close to dominating Nosgoth before but this time, even with a vampire Army in the north they may actually succeed." Ewoden had seen that huge army on its way to the front lines to the north so he was well aware of that reality. "We're setting up a resistance network with the Cabal and the human freedom fighters." Obelisk carried on. "But Inquisitors have started combing the city for us and it's becoming hard to maintain contact with the other groups."

"What happened?" Ewoden asked with a flat emotionless stare. He didn't even need to read the man's tone or voice or the melancholy expression to figure out something was very wrong. The werewolf's had been able to avoid the mass persecution the vampires suffered by evasion and stealth, but confining themselves to backwater communities on the outskirts of the civilisation and never engaging any Sarafan in direct combat. True the Sarafan themselves were on a dangerous rise but never would Seroli risk retaliation by conspiring this way. Obelisk looked away out the window across the rooftops of the city province.

"Stahlberg no longer exists." He muttered with a reluctant hiss coming directly afterwards.

"What do you mean, no longer exists?" The Ewoden asked repeating the statement.

"Burnt to the ground." Obelisk replied abruptly. "As if they where we were, the Sarafan attacked. Only a few Seroli escaped into the ruins to the north of town. Not even the fully humans citizens were spared. A forest of impaled innocents now stands were their homes once were."


	27. Chapter 27: Kain

Chapter 27

KAIN

* * *

The sky broke open as it began to rain, thunder and lightning lashing across the sky like whips before the droplets fell. The land opened up to receive the water it seemed, the half dead trees around suddenly stirring with renewed life as it hit their brown leaves. While most of the plant life had lost the will to live, small feral animals darted out from their hiding places to drink from the puddles culminating on the ground. Predators took the opportunity to hunt, striking at their prey for the first time in months. The rains were becoming less and less frequent and this for all was a blessing. But no amount of water was going to bring these edifices before me back to life.

The pillars of Nosgoth stood crumbling in decay, their cracked remains barely even teen foot high. In their pure state, they stretched on so far they appeared not to have any end. Now they were nothing but short remains damned to slow erosion. Perhaps, I thought as I stood before them silently, this was a sign. Despite everything I had done to overturn the disastrous future I had seen, despite all the changes in history, despite my defiance of fate itself; the decay of Nosgoth seemed inevitable.

I was purified; meaning that for the first time in my entire life, I was a suitable candidate for the Pillar of Balance. But there in lay a dilemma. I would be a perfect Guardian candidate only for the pillar in the time from whence I came, the time of my empire; but those pillars were dead. Not a drop of their sustaining energy left in them. They were only useless hunks of stone towering above my throne. The set before me now were still alive, but only barely.

Yet this Pillar still thought the Kain at Dark Eden was it's representative and it's corruption stayed. Silently I laid a hand against it, wishing I could just talk to it. Maybe then I could somehow…persuade it to choose the Scion of Balance as it's Guardian rather than Kain the destroyer.

"Changing the mind of a rock." I sighed, before sinking down to sit with my back to it's ruin.

Ariel, the Balance Guardian was not here. She had been released, called to the spirit forge in the vampire citadel to empower the Reaver with the final elemental force. Through this, and not my acceptance of death she had willed for so long, did she find peace. If only all of us were so easily allowed to go. I had to gone on, struggling in a dying word against enemies so strong they threatened to overwhelm me.

I was getting nowhere fast.

The Druids, the Sarafan and the Elder God were making plans for the destruction of my entire species and I had no idea how I was going to stop them. I was outnumbered, their generals had skills on par with my own and their plans were an utter mystery to me.

Well, perhaps that was untrue. I did know some things about them. For whatever stratagem they had devised, they needed to be close to the Pillars. But that begged the question, what could these near lifeless husk offer anyone?

This 'Time of Election' the Druid Aurora spoke of, what could it be? All I know is it had to be significant. Aurora had called Sabre, the current leader of the Sarafan, my challenger at that crucial time. But what did that actually mean?

The rain matted my hair, causing to cling to my shoulders. While I was not immune to water's acidic touch, I had built up a tolerance to it that allowed my to stay out in the rain without being scorched. Only my son Ruhab had been completely immune to waters touch. Oh how I longed now for his powers, to have been lent them briefly. With them I could have had the entire vampire race cured of the curse by now. The canister I left with Vorador could be broken open and we could all simply fly away.

"Things are rarely that simply Kain." Raziel told me with passing sadness, but strangely he did not contact my telepathically to say it. Instead his familiar voice seemed to come from directly to my side. Glancing around I saw a translucent shape sitting next to me. It was Raziel! His ghoulish form was sitting there with his arms crossed on his knees; the ruined fabric of his wings fluttering from behind his back in the wind. His clan drape drawn up over his nose to conceal the lower half of his face.

"Raziel." I began reaching out to touch him, only to find my hand going right through his body.

"I'm afraid I'm still inside the sword." He told me with a short sigh. "What you see here is just a projection I'm casting from within." He looked away, blinking his featureless eyes several times.

"How are you doing this?" I asked with raised eyebrows, trailing a talon through his left shoulder; seeing my hand going completely through his transparent form. "The Previous incarnation of the reaver never displayed that talent." Raziel was silent for a moment, staring off into the black gloom.

"I've had some time to dedicate some thought to that mystery." He announced. "If I've simply been going around in a big circle then something had to keep that circle going. Some event that repeated itself time and time again to ensure that I as kept trapped by the Reaver." I nodded once.

"You entering the Sword." Raziel shook his head in response.

"You would naturally think so, but no. It was not my entering the Reaver, but my entering it **_unwillingly _**that set the circle going." I stared at him, forcing an expression that begged him to explain further. "Think about it Kain, if I entered the blade against my will I would have fought against it with every ounce of my sanity and lost. I would have become the ravenous, deranged spirit and the circle would start again. But instead, I accepted the role and eased myself gently into the sword. My sanity remained completely intact. From within, I find I can do more than even I imagined." I was silent for a moment, contemplating his words.

"Although even if you can project an image of yourself that stills leaves you trapped in a sword with no physical form." Raziel flicked some wet hair out of his eyes.

"True, but for the moment I still needed inside the blade." I chuckled out load and stood up, brushing a few strands of white hair out of my face. Telekinetically I called the Reaver Blade out, the hilt flying to my open hand. The eye sockets on the skull were just as dark and empty as ever, but the blade itself sparked now and then with the elemental and spiritual energy contained therein.

"What good is a blade this strong if I don't how and where to use it?" I asked. Raziel glanced up at the sword, his own body for all practical purposes and I could see the shudder pass over him. It was like looking at oneself from the outside.

"Great good Kain, and I can give you all the direction you need." Glancing up, I saw a solitary figure standing on top of the crumbled Balance Pillar. A Hylden female, one all too familiar.

"Ah Seer. I was wondering where you scuttled off to." Lightning broke the sky, silhouetting her streamlined form before she dropped gracefully down to land beside the Balance pillar. "Our last conversation was cut brief was it not?"

"Indeed a shame vampire, which is why I'm here now." She replied folding his arms. Her gaze wandered to my right, to the translucent shape of Raziel standing beside me. From her expression I could tell that she could see him. Apparently this new form of communication my first born was experimenting with was not just for my own benefit. "Well hello there Raziel." The translucent ghoul beside me blinked in surprise.

"You know me Hylden?" He asked sounding perplexed. The seer forced a large smirk, her blue eyes alight with inward humour.

"Redeemer and Destroyer, Pawn and Messiah. We have met or perhaps we have yet to. The difference for a seer is sometimes less clear than it is to others."

"Enough of these riddles." I stated cutting in. "I'm presuming you didn't come here to bombard us with portents." Her smile faded a bit, and I sensed that had been her intention at least for a small part.

"No, I am here because; as I stated before, I need your help."

"To free the Hylden?" She paused at the statement.

"Yes." The seer began again. "I know of a way to release them without unleashing their vicious wrath upon Nosgoth, but only you can aid me in this task. In return, I can offer you aid." Raziel and I exchanged glances.

"Go on." My first born began. The rain began to pour down, falling like heavy bolts upon skin and thunder broke the silence.

"Eons ago, when the war between your kind and mine was at it's peak, when it became clear that the awful stalemate was never going to end; both species began devising weapons to deal the death blow to their enemies. The Hylden's creation was the Mass, the deadly creature within the ancient device you destroyed below Meridian, Kain." I remembered that all too well. A spoor like animal, clinging to the cavern ceiling like some giant creeper plant; sucking vital liquids up from a red lake below.

A creature capable of destroying any living thing but with a whim, but as a instinct driven animal had been incapable of malice against the vampires. So the devices itself was created, to channel it's energy forcefully out into Nosgoth. Using the blood of it's designer, I poised the beast and it died swiftly.

"Yes, and that of the vampires?" I asked. She gestured to the nine pillars behind her.

"The very pillars before us of course." The seer replied. "The vampires completed their weapon first and my kind were banished. The rest of the story you know, but what is relative unknown is that the pillars themselves had an overall designer; the first Balance Guardian."

"The first?" I asked looking a little puzzled. "And who was this?"

"His name was Baal." The Hylden simply stated, letting the name hang in the air for a moment. "Of all the vampire Elders he was the most intelligent, powerful and respected. It was he who first devised the concept of the pillars and their magic's. Baal, along with his eight companions became the first guardians. As the first Balance Guardian he was the one to lock my people away in the demon dimension by combining his power with the eight others. He and he alone could open and shut that realm using the pillars."

"Shame he is not here, he would have helped you a great deal." Raziel commented dryly. The seer regained that all knowing smirk.

"Yes it would, but then I don't need him. A descendant would do just as well. As part of his bloodline, they would inherit that same privilege." I could see now her plan. She intended to use the power of the pillar's architect to open the gateway to the demon dimension, guide her people back into Nosgoth and, if she was to be believed, take them somewhere to regain their grip on sanity.

"And just who is this 'descendant'?" I asked, almost reluctant to hear the answer as a foreboding sense of dread began filling me all of a sudden.

"Why Kain you have met the man already." She stated coyly.

"I have?"

"Baal once took a human Seroli student as his lover." The Hylden seer explained. "And she sired him half human and half vampire off spring. Afraid of scandal as cross breeding was forbidden by their religion, Baal had her and her young spirited away to live away from the vampires. They left the Vampire cities in the west and travelled north, along the mountains until they settled in Nosgoth's most north-eastern region. There they remained long after the Hylden's banishment, their bloodline carrying on throughout the ages.

Their line continued and eventually they came to aristocratic wealth; thought empowered by divine right by their blood connection to the ancients. Eventually the scion of that family became their leader, a much beloved…" She paused, looking me straight in the eye with a wide smile. "…boy king."

"William!" I asked out load in alarm. "William the Just was Baal's descendant?" She nodded once at me. Even Raziel looked stunned. She relished in the surprised looks on our faces.

"Do you recall how well he wielded the Reaver when you met him?" She asked. "Swordsmanship that exceeded any possible human skills." I did recall all too well. Moebius manipulations had pushed the two of us into confrontation and he had made sure we were both armed with the Soul Reaver.

The blade met itself in the past and time was left unstable at the paradox, allowing for an alteration of history to occur. That alteration came when I slew the boy king, changing the future so he would never become the tyrant known as the Nemesis but at the same time igniting the war against the vampires Moebius had been wishing for.

"Even if he is, there your plans fail." Raziel stated. "William is dead. He can help no one." The seer feigned an upset look, obviously faking the disappointment.

"Oh yes, he's dead; but then again…" She paused to lean back against the pillar. "Both of you have been at some point, but here you stand."

"What exactly are you suggesting?" I asked impatient for her to get to the point.

"Just what I need you for." She began. "I need you to revive William's corpse and in doing so bestow unto him vampiric un-life. Only then can he open the pillars completely and end my kind's banishment." There was a brief silence, the only thing to break it being the constant patter of the rain and crash of thunder.

"And just why would I do this thing? Forgive the crude phrase, but **_what's in it for me_**?" I asked folding my arms. I had no love for William. I had seen him destroy cities and kill thousands, impaling them on spikes. Reviving the Nemesis and giving him vampire strength did not seem to me like a good idea.

"Two rewards." The seer began holding up to fingers. "One, further down your path you will need him to help you personally; and two." Her smirk showed itself again. That insufferable smile that instantly showed that she knew more than I did. It reminded me of Moebius far too much. "If you do this favour for me, I will reveal to you the location of the Leviathan Blood."

"And just what is that?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"A blood Fountain, created by Anarcrothe the Alchemist." She carried on. "Even before the corruption of the circle, the Alchemist himself dabbled in substances and arcane science beyond his understanding. Fascinated by the condition known as vampirism, he desiccated many corpses of your kind brought to him by hunters. He became convinced that he could harvest the strength of the vampire if he found a way to remove all the weakness such as being burned alive in water.

And he succeeded, **_partially_**. Anarcrothe changed one of the Blood Fountains and to the vampire that drinks from it, a great advantage comes."

"What does it do?" Raziel asked sounding intrigued. The Hylden seer pushed herself off the pillar and stood before us, her drenched from the air a her simple clothe drippings soaked. Her nipples stood out through the fabric and I caught Raziel casting them a stare. When he noticed my attention he looked away pretending that something else had caught his eye.

"I does only one thing." The seer began raising a finger. "The vampire that drinks from it if Anarcrothe got it right; is remove from that vampire his frailty to water's touch completely." I stood there, looking at her with wide eyes. "Yes Kain, once consuming Leviathan blood you can swim to that Hylden city and unlock that canister." Once more that smirk reappeared. "But you will only find that Fountain if you do as I say."


	28. Chapter 28: Ewoden

Chapter 28

-

Ewoden

-

The notion of active resistance within the human population of Nosgoth had been dismissed as impossible within the ranks of the Sarafan Army. They were the saviours of humanity after all, the great imperial knights that stood against the vile blood suckers. Anyone, human that is, that opposed them their church proclaimed heretics and sinners and they were as fair a game as vampires. Still, that said for their arrogance, the Sarafan were not stupid. Their patrols marched through the streets of Willdendorf regularly, six at a time all armed to the teeth and in full armour. With the mass majority of their army up in the north fighting against the Clans, the Order hierarchy feared even a small rebellion within the city itself.

By now the city province was just as well protected as the capital, Meridian had been. While Willendorf was not as large as Meridian and they had lost the use of the technology reliant on the glyphs, they had done well in the cities fortification. Around the outside of the island within the lake of Serenity there was now a gigantic stone wall at least two hundred foot high and protected on all sides by a rows of cannons. The bridge leading from the island to the mainland and the city there was now the centre point for a large garrison, built so quickly the people were certain magic's had been involved in it's construction.

The moon had not yet risen and it was due to be full tonight. This would be a night were the Seroli would finally move out of the shadows they had concealed themselves for so long. After the destruction of Stahlberg it soon became clear that the Order wished all non-humans to die, Vampire and Werewolf alike. Passive no aggression may have worked in previous ages, but not in such a time.

Ramak, the eldest of the Seroli Smiths, had not made the decision to go to war with the order lightly. But he had seen what had happened when the Sarafan marched into their town. They attacked without warning and without mercy. They cared little whether so they caught was a werewolf or not. Anyone captured was brutally tortured before being impaled. Forced to flee, the Seroli had taken shelter in the ruins of an old kingdom north of town and from there they watched.

Their homes, the entire town was burnt to the ground and in their place; a fortress of dead impaled stood as a message. A message of hate and great evil, masked as righteousness. It was then they knew their comfortable existence in the folklore of mankind had come to an end. If they were to survive, the Werewolves would have to take a far more active role in events being played out.

"Ah my dear Master-Smith, what brings you to my chamber at this hour?" The Princess Alicia of Willdendorf asked as the ancient called the castle wall and climbed over the edge of the balcony outside the window. The full moon was due to rise over the horizon in an hour, the white glow of its light already highlighting the row of rooftops outside the window.

"Our operations begin tonight." He told her. The way he spoke was most amusing to watch. His features had evolved to include a lupine snout and fur running down from the back of his head. The master-smith spoke with human lips that arched up into a snout half way so his words came out with short howls on the end of his sentences. The Princess stood there in the elegant clothing of a woman of nobility, her arms folded behind her back and a short smile across her unblemished face.

"And with that I wish you the best of luck." She smiled faded a little. "You do know that if caught, I expect your agents to die before giving any information. And if they survive capture, I will see to it they die before questioning." Ramak remained motionless, his flaxen yellow eyes latched on her like fishing hooks.

"Of course." The master-smith began after a brief moment of silence.

"When what is the reason for the visit?" She asked sitting back down on at the chair neck to the table.

"I wish to know if there has been any word from Vorador and the Cabal?" He asking watching her movements carefully. She was the daughter of a high ranking Sarafan collaborator after all. Even if she claimed she despised him, her allies would be most unwise to trust her.

"The last messenger reported that the vampire and his network still lives, despite being driven from their hiding hole." Alicia replied. "I know not where they have set up their operations though." She looked up at him coyly. "But the Cabal sect in this city should be enough for your operation tonight. I hope to hear of it in the morning reports." Ramak managed a short smile, showing several of his sharp teeth.

"One way or another, you'll hear of it." With that he turned and lanced out the window vanishing as if he'd never been there.

* * *

- 

Ewoden was inexperienced, a fledgling by Seroli standards. The wolf within had taken full hold and he was now one of them, but still he required training. This was why Obelisk had taken him here tonight, to this deserted warehouse on the edge of the docks south of the main citadel. By now, the other wolves would already have started their operation and he would like to have gone with then, but at present his obligation lay here. He was the one after all who passed on the Lupine curse to the former knight.

Obelisk stood there with his arms crossed, watching was Ewoden stood there before him in the moonbeam coming down through a broken hole in the warehouse roof. As the light from the full moon fell upon him, the former knight underwent the transformation.

"The only thing you have to fear from the lupine form is the animal side." Obelisk told him flatly as fur began running down Ewoden's back; a thick bushy tail sprouting out the end. "It is basic survival instincts that are present in all humans magnified by the light of the moon. It can be overcome with force of will." Ewoden's fists clenched and unclenched as his sides before thick claws began lancing out from the ends of his fingers one by one. "Remember, the wolf was a part of you since the moment you were born. Its form here is just a manifestation of a repressed part of yourself, ravenous and wilful after so long an imprisonment. But like any dog it can learn obedience." Ewoden's nose pushed outwards as it twisted into a snout. All the while his overall size had steadily increasing, the muscles under the skin and fur tightening and steady growing in strength. Before the transformation could complete itself however, the former knight seemed to loose his nerve. He threw himself out of the light and into the shadows. Instantly the fur and extra mass just seemed to evaporate and he was left human again.

Obelisk shook his head in disappointment. "If you show fear before a wolf the first thing it's going to do is attack you. The same rule applies to the beast within. Unless you tame it, it will tame YOU." Ewoden hoisted himself off his knees, his bare back dripping with sweat. The scars he now bore from his stay in the Sarafan garrison stood out in the semi light.

"I am not a dog trainer." He stated with a hint of anger in his voice.

"You don't need to be." Obelisk replied. "Everyone has an animalistic side they restrain. Holding it back is not a problem, but controlling while outside its prison is another matter." He tossed Ewoden a piece of clothe to mop up his sweat with. "We'll try again in a moment, only next time try to remember that you are not fighting against a creature trying to claw its way out from the inside. It's your own animalistic impulses you're struggling against." Ewoden wasn't listening. He sat there on the warehouse floor catching his breath, his thoughts turned once more to Sally. Where was she? Right now, he would trade the entire world to see her again.

The last time he had glimpsed her face had been in battle against the Sarafan army and their shadow creatures that attacked Vorador's estate. Yet someone he knew she was alive. Perhaps it was all the connection they shared with the Whisper could do while he was confined to the city; just reassure him she was alive. More than once he had considered simply running from the city and once beyond the influence of whatever kept magic from working, he would use a translocation spell to travel away to her. But he could not do that just yet. For now, the knowledge of her safety would have to do.

He had tasted the meat of a Sarafan guard during the last full moon and relished in it. What if next time he adopted wolf form it attacked an innocent, or a child? He could not live with the mere thought let alone the possibility. He had to learn how to control it and the Seroli were the only ones who could offer him training. For now, the knowledge of her safety would have to do.

"Now then, step into the light." Ewoden shuddered, took a deep breath before doing as Obelisk said and advancing once more into the moon light. As soon as his skin was under its touch, the familiar feeling of strength and power began pulsing through his veins. "Remember now, you are the one in charge; not the beast." Most of Obelisk's words were lost as the gnawing began. Ewoden could feel it start within the back of his head, a buzzing sensation that soon grew into a pounding as the animal within struggled to be free. Ewoden himself barely even noticed the physical changes he was going through, his efforts were concentrated completely on the wolf inside.

Forcing himself to remember that the think clawing at the inside of his head was not separate but another part of his overall self, Ewoden looked at in a different light. Instead of seeing a beast, he pictured a mirror version of himself. That image it seemed was easier to picture than a wolf and far easier to fight against.

"Good, good. You're almost there. Now, remember. The beast within is not to be completely restrained. Do so and you will be bound utterly by your human instincts. You will not survive for a moment in battle if you are."

Ewoden stared once more at the man inside his head, the forced image of his animal side and saw that it was not the evil he thought it was. A wolf was no more evil than men, even less so. It killed, slew and fed upon flesh because that was how it lived. It was simply instincts nature created to help animals survive. Ewoden stood before it within the space of his mind, before offering a hand forward. The man glanced at it briefly, offer offering his own forward and the two met in a handshake. "Yes, that's it boy!" Obelisk's exclamation brought Ewoden back to reality and he found himself changed. He was now over seven foot tall and covered in ginger red fur, his legs warped to become bi-pedal. His nose lay out before him in a canine snout, the end thick wet and black. He could feel the enlarge fangs in his mouth as his tongue lashed over them. "How does it feel?" Obelisk asking glancing up at him with a wide smile. Ewoden staggered backwards in sheer surprised and stepped out of the light, dropping down from his wolf form to normal.

He sat there breathing hard, eyes wide with utter astonishment. "Takes a little getting used to, but believe me you'll get it eventually." Obelisk sat down beside him, reached into his animal skin armour and withdrew a small brown bottle. It was the same substance Ral had passed him earlier, the bizarre culmination of various alcohols that produced an elixir guaranteed to put hair on the tongue. It tasted like a sword blade and gave you one hell of a hangover, but the stuff did help settle the stomach after transformations. "Remember, do not fight completely against the beast, instead channel it's aggression at those who seek to harm you. Feeding on your enemies would lessen it's hunger for the hunt." Obelisk stated, taking a swig from the bottle himself. Ewoden shook his head, a few drops of sweat flying from the ends of his hair.

"I could never willingly do that." He stated. Death, killing especially he was used to. He was used to it. During his time with the Original Sarafan Order he had learned how to accomplish violent acts and think nothing of it. Yet tearing someone apart with bare claws and then eating the meat was something he doubted he would ever be able to get used to. "I just couldn't."

"And why not?" The larger man asked raising an eyebrow in his direction. The former knight paused, before turning back.

"Because it's wrong that's why." He stated. While his believes old and new were being twisted desperately to try and weld, a single gut feeling told him that was one truth he could cling onto it. Obelisk let his head roll back and he burst out laughing. Ewoden glared at him, irritated that the Seroli smith found it so amusing.

"Anthony had the same moral code you do." He stated as his chuckling died away, leaning back against the wall.

"Anthony?" Ewoden repeated. Then the memory clicked and he remembered that was the same of the vendor he and Sally had bullied into taking them down to see the Seroli, right before Obelisk interrupted them. "Well, he lived to a ripe old age didn't he?" The larger man sat there in silence for a while.

"Aye, he did." Obelisk finally replied. "But he never left the town. He never met with any Sarafan patrols. Not all of us can be so confined. I guess he learned the hard way." Ewoden looked up.

"He's dead isn't he?" Obelisk just nodded and then he leaned forward and shot the former knight a glare. His eyes were full of hurt and pain but rimmed with anger.

"He died impaled on a stake because they fear those who are different. Vampires simply provide an excuse for them to vent their frustrations and often jealous'. Perhaps in a perfect world we can all be like Anthony, but this ISN'T a perfect world. So let me tell you something." He stood up and walked towards the beam of moonlight. "It's not about right, it's not about wrong." He paused and looked back. Ewoden could see that his eyes had changed to a flaxen yellow. "It's about survival." Without another word he stepped into the light and fur instantly began growing…


	29. Chapter 29: Kain

Chapter 29

Kain

Directly east of the Pillars was the great southern lake, an expanse of water that separated the north planes from the rocky shores to the south. Due to lack of rainfall over the years however the lake had shrunk; peeling back over the land. It was now barley half of the length it had been and far less deep. On the southern shore of this lake the original Sarafan Order had constructed their fortress. I had seen this mighty construct at the height of its glory and admittedly it was a semi-impressive sight. Now, abandoned and ravaged by the weather it was nothing more than a ruin. The giant stone battlements had collapsed into the lake, the door that bared the entrance inside had long since rotted away and the receding waters had left their moat barren and dry.

The original Sarafan order had been more interested with the destruction of vampires rather than their overall suffering. So it could be argued that these Sarafan were more 'humane' than these new cruel and vicious scions. Yet even if this was so, the smell still reeked of death even after seven hundred years.

My bats came together in within the great hall of the stronghold and I beheld the state of their supposedly impenetrable fortress. The roof was missing, the metal portcullis' across the doors had rusted to near nothing and several of the colossal stone pillars that held the roof had crumbled to brick dust around me. One of the demon hunters who had tried to retake the ruin about a century or two before lay on the ground, his rotting remains sending a very potent smell into the air.

Glancing up I saw Raziel ahead of me, his transparent form projecting itself from inside the Reaver. He was waiting beside the metal gates had barred entry to the chapel at the far end of the hall. Despite the rust of the others, this gate had seemed to have barred the centuries well. But one solid kick was enough to shove them loose. Moebius statue stood before me, holding high in his hand Vorador's severed head. Despite the collapse of the fortress, this sickening sight was still standing. A testament to his near destruction of my species, standing for centuries so that all may know the days of the vampires were nearing an end. Growling in disgust I smashed a telekinetic pulse into the time streamers face. His head tore from the body and crumbled to the ground.

The stained glass windows lined the chapel had all been broken, the shattered glass lying scattered across the floor in various places. But the ruination of their place of worship was not my concern. What I was here for was lying at the far end of the chapel. When the beloved king William the Just had been killed before he could become the Nemesis, history was rewritten so that instead of cursing the name of William; the people of Nosgoth worshiped him as the saint who stood against Kain the Destroyer. And so they honoured him as best they could, entombing him here in the now considered holy residence of the Sarafan; his corpse on full view for Moebius' hunters to remind them of why they were fighting.

Because of William, even partly, my life had been one travesty after another. First he raped the land as the Nemesis and then he sparked the hatred of my kind as the 'Boy King.'

And what did the Seer want me to do? Revive the bastard.

I wasn't sure how long I stood over the casket looking down at the stone lid before me but by the time I became aware of it, the rain outside had ceased. Why should I? I found myself asking. Why should I bring back to life this man? Why did he deserve immortality after what he did, or would have done had I not stopped him? Hang the Seer and her promise of rewards; this was something I needed to know. Why did he deserve the gift of life again? How could I be sure he would stay William the Just, when with vampire blood pumping through his veins it was more than likely he would become the Nemesis again?

"Do we have a choice?" Raziel asked reading my thoughts telepathically, his projected form standing beside me. I shook my head slowly. No…even if I knew if William deserved the Dark Gift or not, the choice was not mine. I needed the Seer's Leviathan blood and she would only tell me where it was if I did as I was told.

Perhaps I was judging this man because of the actions of another. This boy was not the Nemesis and perhaps again, with history so re-written the temptations of power would not sway him. There was only one way to be sure.

With only solid shove, I pushed the lid of the casket. William had been decaying for over two hundred and fifty years so I was not expecting much of his body to be left save a skeleton. To my surprise I found his corpse quite well preserved. Wrapped from head to foot in bandages and seasoned with various minerals, his body had retained some of the flesh. Still, the smell flying up from the stone coffin was quite unbearable. Still, having suffered far worse I kept my head.

"The seventh son." I commented out load. True enough, if I raised William then that was what he would become. There is an emotional and spiritual bound a vampire shares with those he sires. Janos and Vorador were like father and son, and I was no different with the six I created from the Sarafan inquisitors. Even the permanently rotting Melchiah I loved as my offspring. Raising William would create the same bound. Was I prepared to have the Nemesis as my son? Well, there was only one way to find out.

Raising a vampire from the dead is perhaps more complicated than most humans believe. One does not snag any old soul from the underworld to animate the body. If it was that simple Vorador would have been able to sire thousands of vampires to overthrow the Order in the days of the Sarafan lord.

No… it had to be the right soul to the right body. My only hope was that William's spirit had not been absorbed and digested by the Elder God yet. Silently I placed my left hand upon the corpse's forehead and began calling to the underworld. This was an art similar to fishing. Channelling my call through the body, I made it appear to the underworld as if the corpse was calling for it's soul to return. Sort of similar to a tackle on the end of a fishing line, drawing the fish closer towards itself. This required immense concentration and a great deal of energy on my part which is why only Elder vampires have the power to do it.

After ten minutes of waiting, it finally happened. I felt a sudden shift and instantly I knew that a soul had entered the body. But was it the right one? If not I would have to start again.

"Who are you?" I asked of the body leaning close to it. The lips did not move but from within the throat a wisp of air passed up and then out through the dried mouth; a single word dragged out upon it.

"William." Instantly I threw a sealing spell around the body to prevent the soul from returning to the ether trapping it inside. Now I had time to work. The energy drain was beginning to tug at my muscles but I carried on anyway with Raziel watching me over my shoulder. Without a second thought I dragged my talons across my left wrist cutting the views, the blood leaking out in a thick river. Before any of it could be wasted I reached over and eased William's mouth open. Drop by drop my blood fell from me and past his waiting, dried up lips. Once I was sure I have given enough, my vampiric healing abilities kicked in and the self inflicted wound healed.

The raising process was almost complete. Only one thing left to do. The corpse had a soul and vampire blood within it. To make it all work, it needed energy to get going again. Laying a hand on its chest, I began pumping power; life force, magical and even spiritual into the body. Once I had given enough of my store I stepped back. There was nothing but silence, the corpse lying absolutely still.

"So that was how you raised the six of us." Raziel commented looking down at the body. "I never had the chance to evolve far enough to gain this ability." The clans had been created, largely, not by reviving dead bodies but rather by the infection of living humans. Even Raziel, as the eldest had not progressed far enough into their evolution to acquire the ability to resurrect corpses.

"Yes." I replied. "Although even if I have experience with this, I am not sure what to expect." The transparent ghoul looked up at me clearly a little puzzled.

"How so?" He asked.

"When I created you and your brothers I still had the corruption of Nupraptor within me. That passed on to the six of you and you all began devolving if you recall their monstrous forms. That is not the case here." I added, gesturing to the body. "I am purified of the mentalist's madness; as such I do not know what William will become given time." Raziel did not reply to that, he simply looked down at the inanimate corpse again. "So now we wait." With that I sat down against one of the few remain stone pillars and closed my eyes. I was not really sleeping, only rebuilding my energy reserve. Even creating one vampire could tax an ancient. That was why we were always hopelessly outnumbered by the humans.

"Something…" Raziel began but he was cut off by a loan moaning. Quickly I stood up and made my way over to the stone coffin, staring down at the body within. Far sooner than I had ever expected the centuries old corpse was beginning to twitch. Strange, Raziel and his brothers had taken longer. Barley a minute had passed this time. Slowly William's body began writhing, the crossed arms stretching out as the skin under the bandages began to heal. Hair sprouted from the decaying corpse's head, starched blond at first before changing to chestnut brown.

Muscles under the skin began twitching spasmodically, exercising themselves for the first time in centuries. The heart thumped so loudly I could hear it from here, the lungs on either side clearing out the dust and spiders webs with giant heaves that came out as strong moans. Once the skin had clarified, returning to it's normal pink the body heaved itself up into a sitting position.

The transformation had not yet completed itself. A hand reached up and tugged at the bandages covering its face and once more I found myself looking upon the face of Nemesis. with a sudden quickening, his skin adopted a greyer colour and his eyes changed from their normal blue to flaxen yellow. He lurched forward clutching his stomach as a pair of fangs sprouted out of his canines.

I found that despite my history with this mere boy I could feel no contempt seeing him again. As I suspected, as he was now my vampiric offspring I felt that emotional tether siring one always brought about. Reaching over, I offered him my exposed wrist. His eyes glanced up, before new instincts took over and he sank his fangs down through the skin. My blood passed once more and he feed, drawing strength from the empowered blood on an ancient.

"That's enough." I stated and reluctantly he let go. "On your feet." William did as ordered, unable to do anything else. I was his sire after all. "I am Kain, your Master. Do you understand?" The boy king was unclothed apart from the bandages wrapped around his body. "I asked you a question."

"Yes Master." He replied with a short bow of his head, blood staining his lower lip. Well, at least this was off to a good start. Well, I was unsure technically if it was or wasn't but I knew of no other way to deal with fledgling vampires.

"What is your name?" I asked him. William stood there, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape.

"I…I don't know." He replied. I managed a small smile. "I…I know… I know I have one. Why can't I remember?" he asked out load. Amnesia right on cue. Any corpse raised this way would often forget their past lives. This was why none of my first six sons remembered their previous lives as Sarafan inquisitors. This made things far easier. William would be easier to train if he did not recall I was the one who killed him.

"Your name is William." I told him. But that was the only tether to his past life I was going to let him know about. "You are a vampire, my kin. As such you will obey my commands, is that clear?" He nodded once.

He stood there shivering from the cold, half naked and hungry. Vampiric, almost parental, instincts told me I needed to teach him how to hunt. This era of Nosgoth's not last long. I cast my mind back to the time I had raised the Sarafan crypt and raised the six bodies there to be my sons. Raziel had been the first with the others following soon after. A smile forced its way onto my face as I recalled when I took my first born out hunting for the first time.

I looked up to see him staring at the translucent form of Raziel beside me, his eyes wide open in a strange mixture of awe, wonder and mute fear. While he did not remember anything about his past life, enough remained of his human instincts to tell me to be wary of this strange ghost like apparition. He backed up against the side of his stone coffin nearly falling over the edge.

"This is Raziel." I announced gesturing to him. "He is a friend. He will not harm you."

"I couldn't even if I wanted to." Raziel added, confirming this by waving his arm back and forth through the wall; showing to William that he had no physical form and thus was not a threat to him.

"I…I am hungry." William stated, his hands clutching his stomach. Vampires were often like this when raised this way. Any and all maturity they might have gained from their human life was gone and they were reduced, practically, to the level of infants.

"Yes…I know." I stated, glancing momentarily past him to the world outside. The rain had stopped by now so he was unlikely to get burned. "Come, now we hunt." I offered him my hand and he took it without hesitation. Vanishing in a translocation spell, I hurled us both across Nosgoth to a safer location to begin teaching this new vampire what he needed to know.

Travelling almost directly south, I took him to the only place I knew for the certain that the Sarafan no longer had a presence. I took him to the city of Meridian. Most of the metropolis was completely deserted, most of the people either fled or taken forcefully by the Order to Willdendorf. A mere few years ago this city had been overflowing with Sarafan, now I doubted there was even a single guard. Even the thieves seem to have deserted this place. The only things that could possible pose even a minuscule threat were the thugs who had remained behind to terrorise the humans that still remained.

Umah had one called this place a perfect place to train me. Well, I needed no training, but the new vampire following behind me most certainly did.

"Do you trust him then?" Raziel asked me even before the spell ended.

"No." I replied. "I'm doing this because it's what I have to." Without William, I would never find the Leviathan Blood and without that I had no hope of curing the vampire race.

"Is that what you thought when you revived me?" Raziel asked before his voice faded away.


	30. Boss 3: Umah

Boss 3: Umah

* * *

-

The front lines in the northern plains of Nosgoth had been witness to atrocities committed by both vampire and Sarafan alike. The southern lines owned by the Order had rows of impaled vampires laid out in forests and placed on top of hills for the vampires to see. All those impaled had been alive when they met their fate. Makeshifts forts of wood sat in a long line across the land, their side of the lines stretching from the shores of the Lake of Lost Souls to the hills upon which the ruins of Malek's Bastion were visible.

To the north across a thick no man's land was the mountain range that formed Nosgoth's northern border. Canyons and cracks in the rock face had been taken as the home of the Clans. Banners of the six sects flew high above the towering peeks of Dark Eden, the towers of the old ruin jutting out on the horizon. For the last year and a half it had been a bloody stalemate between the two forces and for all that time, the Generals in charge of the front had been desperately trying new schemes to come up with a way to get in there. Even with their advantage of the Sunlight Knights, the vampires held a very important strategic position. The only way into Dark Eden was through a thin canyon which the Clans had fortified to near a near impossibly strong defence. The mountains around were simply too rugged and tall to climb never mind lead a column of men through.

For a while the Sarafan thought they could simply starve them out, keep them from going out to hunt; but it seemed the vampires had brought with them heretical servants from which to feed upon. These vampire worshippers gave their blood willingly, intelligence suggested, maintaining their masters. A memo was made that these burn these sinners once total victory was achieved.

When an army of Sarafan marched up to bolster the ranks of the men already stationed there, moral went through the roof. The generals could not believe their eyes at the sheer amount of fresh soldiers that had journeyed from the garrisons at Willendorf. Combined with the stationed troops there had to be well over ten thousand men here and they had all brought fresh supplies with them. A celebration for the vampires certain defeat was held that night, the drunken roar echoing across the land.

From the top of the Bastion to the west, Vorador watched their encampment with a stern expression fixed on his face. The Sarafan had not attempted to retake this fortress and Vorador and his surviving Cabal found it a perfect place to set up their new operations. It was within spying distance of the Order's lines and it had a good height advantage. Even if the Sarafan somehow did find out they were here, it was a good long marched from the cliff bottom to the castle at the top giving the Cabal plenty of them to escape if necessary.

Vorador glanced up briefly to see his sire, Janos Audron coursed through the air towards him with his raven like wings spread out wide. Coming within landing distance of the Bastion's battlements, his wings beat themselves several time slow him down before Janos gently dropped down to his feet.

"Their numbers are great. Well into the thousands" He reported folding his wings behind him. He had flown across their lines from a great height spying on them while they sang songs of impending victory. "And those not drunk out of their minds are building siege weaponry. If they attack in the morning I do not believe the Clans will hold their position for long." Vorador muttered something angrily under his breath and glanced down at the flickering lights in the valley below.

What really bothered him was the attack on his mansion that had forced him and his Cabal to flee. The shadow creatures that aided them in their assault were a mystery in off themselves, Shades, folklore called them. Even with their help the Sarafan should never have known their hiding place, unless of course there was a traitor in their midst?

Yes that had to be it. Someone, perhaps one of the humans was a spy planted by the Order. An inside man whose job it had been to worm his way into the heart of the Cabal and expose their secrets. That still begged the questions of who it had been; and if they were still amongst their numbers.

"Are they well supplied?" Vorador asked. Janos nodded once with a melancholy frown on his face.

"They pilfered towns on their way north like pirates." The ancient explained turning to look down at the encampment himself. "Half the supplies they have there they stole from farms and villages. They also brought women with them, and I think you can guess what they plan to do with them." Vorador put a talon to his finger and he began tapping his foot. It didn't help him think better it was more of a nervous reaction.

"If Kain's army is crushed here, the Sarafan's political power becomes absolute." Janos nodded in agreement.

"The longer the war is dragged out, the more opposition to their movements grows in Willendorf."

"And the more chance of a revolution on both sides we gain." Vorador turned away and made his way towards the stone stairs leading down into the courtyard. "But even with our help, I doubt the Clans will win the battle."

Both as Ancients, Vorador and Janos Audron could summon blood magically for their vampire resistance members to consume, leaving the humans in their midst free to work alongside them without fear of having fangs sunk into their neck. While this position was presently cut off from the other resistance sects, Vorador had chosen it because of the urgency at hand. Something had to be done about that army and fast. The only question was, what?

Sally found that despite everything she tried, her thoughts were distracted. She was unable to concentrate completely on the duties given to her. The severed link through the Whisper was like a suffocated hand around her throat. Many times now she had tried to break through, to contact Ewoden only to receive no reply. Only a buzzing intermission, not quite the silence of the mind took its place.

It was a like something that was just out of reach and no matter how hard she tried it would remain so. It wasn't just that either. Something was lurking at the back of her mind for a while now. Something that was waiting for the right moment to emerge. Something powerful.

Eventually she just dropped the sword she was supposed to be sharpening and left the chamber were the other Cabal members were tending to their weapons.

Her thoughts were completely on the former knight now. When he left her behind with Vorador before, she had only felt a surge of grief at the separation. Now they shared a link through the Whisper, the pain was immensely stronger. Their link was more than that shared by others vampires; her mind and his shared memories, emotions and feelings. That sense of union had been so wonderful that now separated from it, Sally felt like her strength was leaking away bit by bit.

The not knowing was the worst thing. He was alive, that was all she knew, but where and in what condition? Was he being tortured to death by the Sarafan who dragged him away? Was he scheduled to be killed at dawn tomorrow?

Wandering through the abandoned corridors of the Bastion, Sally could feel the cold around her sapping whatever warmth her body could retain out from her skin. Vampires naturally had a cooler body temperature than most humans but even they could feel the cold nipping at them. This fortress had been abandoned for over two hundred years, the last refuse of the original Sarafan. That she had guessed without Vorador telling her. The armour worn by the skeletons was that she recognised. It was actually a welcome sight, something to remind her of the time from which she came. The rest of the fortress was nearly frozen solid and reddened with rusted and inoperable arcane machinery she did not recognise. Just about everything in and of this era of history depressed her.

Eventually, Sally found herself standing before a large door. Within was one of the central chambers, a chapel like building where the previous inhabitants of this fortress may have worshiped. It was here that Janos had taken the vampire maiden he had retrieved from the mansion before it was overrun with knights. Sally had never seen her before the winged ancient landed on the battlements of their fall back position with her in his arms. Undoubtedly beautiful, slim and tall with long flowing black hair. Who she was Sally did not know but clearly was significant for all that trouble to have been gone through for her.

Sally was about to carry on when she heard a strange sound coming from behind the door. Stopping she paused to listen and after a few moments she could make out a soft sobbing sound. Strange, there wasn't supposed to be anyone in there beside the comatose maiden.

Curiosity trying to overwhelm personal anguish, Sally pushed the door open a crack and put her head around it. Most of the chapel was completely in the dark, the only space lit being a stone alter at the far end upon which Janos had laid the vampire woman, illuminated by a single glass lantern. But from here, Sally could see that she had gone. The stone alter was bare completely.

Knowing full well that her best action would have been to simply report this, Sally advanced completely into the chapel anyway. The darkness on either side allowed not even her vampirically enhanced sight to pierce. Still that distant sound of weeping continued; the source undeterminable as the sound echoed several times off the walls around her.

Reaching the large carved alter; Sally looked around for the woman Janos had placed here. There was nothing to be seen in the light. Sally picked up the lantern and glanced around

Suddenly the door behind her slammed shut with a loud sound that echoed through the chapel. Sally shot around, one of her throwing daggers instinctively ready to fly from her fingers. Sensing no one there, she lowered her arm and relaxed.

"Must have been the wind." She muttered to herself placing the lantern back down on the alter.

That distant sound of sobbing suddenly grew louder and now Sally was utterly certain it was coming from within this chapel. She could sense nothing but that was what disturbed her.

Slowly she backed down towards the door, keeping her eyes on the shadows around her for any sign of movement. As she moved the crying was beginning to grow louder and the echoed quicker, as if the source was drawing near.

Reaching the door Sally tried to open it, but found to her dismay that it was locked, a large bar of cold metal wedged horizontally across it. She tried to move it but even a vampire's strength had its limits. "Not the wind then." She sighed, turning around with a dagger in one hand and the lantern in the other. Now she was certain there was something in here.

"Kain…why?" A faint feminine voiced asked, as light as a mountain breeze, before something hit Sally hard in the face. The blow was so suddenly and extreme she couldn't defend herself against it. Sent flying backwards she slammed with a loud thud into the door behind her.

The back of her head throbbing, Sally glanced up to see someone standing before her.

It was the vampire woman. Her clothes hung loosely around her, flowing like silk as she moved. Now that Sally had a proper look at her she noted the arched, black rune like tattoos running down each side of her face and another from her hairline directly down the middle of her forehead. Tears followed freely from her eyes and from the vacant expressions on her face it was clear that she was not entirely there. Vorador had mentioned her name to them all and now Sally remembered what it was; Umah.

Glancing down, Sally saw the sword blade in Umah's hand just in time to roll to the side to avoid a swift jab. Her movements clearly guided by her subconscious, Umah shot back with a swipe across the middle that tore Sally's shirt across the side. Dancing back across the floor Sally put as much distance as she could between herself and the maiden.

As if her feet weren't even touching the floor Umah soured forward sword in hand, the blade taken from the collection of weapons left lying around by the Bastion's former Sarafan occupants. Sally tried to block the swing with her knife but the sword being far stronger than her short blade it shattered. Sally only managed to duck in time to avoid being decapitated. Reacting on instinct, she ducked into a crouch before swinging a leg out hard to smash a kick into Umah's stomach.

The blow forced Umah back into the shadows and instantly she vanished, disappearing completely into the darkness. Sally glanced around for her but found that he maiden had completely vanished.

"Please Kain…help me…." The hushed whispers from the shadows murmured and acting on gut instinct alone Sally jumped high into the air as Umah swung her sword blade up sharply trying to slice her arm off. Rebounding off the ceiling Sally spun back into the central chapel near the alter.

Umah staggered there in the darkness for a moment, her movements a strange culmination of grave and spasmodic. Sally could guess now that something had happened to traumatise this woman. Shock her enough to remove any sense she had of the world. Sally doubted Umah even knew she was awake.

"Vorador… hear me." She called out with her mind, echoing her message through the walls of the fortress through the Whisper.

Vorador had been pacing the courtyard outside trying to think of some sort of stratagem that would enable him to prevent the Clan's destruction when Sally's message reached him. He stopped in mid stride, pausing as the information began 'Whispering' to him.

"Something wrong?" Janos asked him looking up. Vorador blinked once before a stunned expression passed over his face.

"Umah!" He nearly yelled before clasping his hands together and teleporting away in a shimmer of light. Janos looked a bit confused, before he engaged his own spell and quickly followed after him.

Umah apparently had had more time to evolve than Sally had. She was stronger, faster and her skill with a long blade outclassed Sally's own short blade and marksman abilities. Still, Sally had a definite advantage of agility to close range combat and the added of bonus of being completely sane. Umah was torn between a fantasy world and reality. Her mind traumatized so much she was completely oblivious to everything around her.

Guiding her actions were sub-conscious impulses and emotions buried deep released so fast and so strong they manifest physically, expressions of intense feelings of betrayal and anger. The sword clamped into the stone just above Sally's head as he dived down to avoid the swing, brining her leg across sharply knocking Umah's out from underneath her. Umah fell to the ground with a thud, the sword spiralling from her hand and spinning to a stop a short distance away.

Sally made a dive for it, grabbing it the hilt in her left hand. Umah slowly picked herself up, swaying gently like the leaves on a tree branch. Her arms hung like loose pieces of clothe by her sides with her shoulders drooped on either side.

"Umah!" Vorador called out, materializing out of a translocation spell with Janos Audron close behind him. Umah just ignored him and stood there, tears running down her cheeks. With a sudden burst of speed she leapt at all three of them at once. Vorador and Janos jumped to the side at the last second but Sally not being as fast as thrown and pinned to the floor. Umah's fangs emerged as her mouth neared Sally's neck.

"I need your blood…please…" He moaned leaning closer. Sally tried to get free but Umah was far stronger.

Vorador threw both hands up and grabbed Umah in the thrall of a telekinetic grip, hoisting her up into the air. Gently he pulled the struggling Umah off Sally and back over to the stone alter. Choosing a moment when her struggling was not quite so spasmodic, Janos placed his hand on her forehead and closed his eyes. After a moment he sighed and pulled his hand away.

"Her mind has been severely traumatized; all I can sense is anger, despair and sadness. She is now constantly re-living the moment Kain betrayed her." He announced opening his eyes and shaking his head Vorador could not help but grimaced.

"What dire fate is it to relive one's death again and again?" Janos placed a hand on Vorador's shoulder and shook his head.

"Her tragedy is more acute than that." The winged ancient began. "She loved him, was prepared to leave the Cabal to follow him. But she could not turn her back on those she had fought alongside for so long. So from him she stole the Nexus Stone, to prove to Kain that the Cabal was stronger than he thought." Janos looked down at her tear ridden face, sighing in pity. "He destroyed her for doing what she thought was right." Vorador was utterly silent as he stared into the face of the vampire maiden.

Sally picked herself, forcing her shivering body to be still but it was not listening. Something had changed within, something she could not explain. Something had been added in a single adrenaline rich moment but exactly what it was eluded her, it was as if someone had placed a heavy item on her person but she was not sure where.

Glancing up, she stared at Umah and suddenly found herself looking at more than what people saw on the outside. Past the shattered shell Sally looked deep into the core of Umah's psyche, beating past emotions of grief so strong they threatened to overwhelm and directly at the centre she saw a single nugget of clarity left.

Realizing that it was only a matter of time before the grief swallowed that nugget, Sally's reaction was almost instinctive. She walked forward, past Vorador and Janos ignoring their queries as to what she was doing and softly laid her forehead against Umah's.

Knowledge of what to do seemed to come from nowhere and peeling through the layers of heightened emotional sorrow, Sally found herself looking into the core.

"She's attempted telepathy?" Vorador asked seeing that Sally was now in a complete link with Umah.

"Sally has evolved her first dark gift." Janos stated waving a cloven hand in front of Umah's eyes seeing the pupils remain where they were and not follow him. Vorador was silent for a moment, before he put a talon to his forehead and tried to see what was happening through the Whisper. "That would not be wise." The winged ancient told him sternly, tapping him on the shoulder. "It appears Sally's gift is custom acquired for this task. There are varying abilities in physic Dark gifts, each one unique to the vampire using it Attempting to intervene using a common form of telepathy right now would most likely be harmful for Sally, Umah and yourself."

During the first couple of hundred years of growth, vampires acquired several new talents, or Dark Gifts, as the humans called them. The most commonly acquired were physic powers, energy manipulation and new physical attributes. The first they always acquired first was the ability to use the Whisper, but the strength of that usage was relative to the vampire in question.

Strange though; Vorador had not thought Sally ready for her first dark gift. The girl was barely seventy and their kind usually gained their first power from a century old onwards. Vorador grumbled something under his breath and looked back at the two females in physic unison.

"Please Kain…" Sally could hear the desperate call of Umah's mind echoed through her own. "Please Kain, don't leave me alone!" Sally could all around her images, memories of that encounter on the Wharves of Meridian. Her body badly beaten by the blades of the Sarafan knights and like a knight in shining armour Kain arrived to save her. But that was not Kain's intention. He took the Nexus Stone back and after extracting an apology from her dying body, he drew his claws across her throat. Slipping into the blackest night Umah's last memory was that of his emotionless face staring down at her.

"You're not alone." Sally called out to vampire maiden. Umah almost seemed to recoil at the new sound invading the repeating horror in her head. "You're not alone Umah, you don't have to keep reliving this anymore." Though she did not reply Sally could keenly sense her utter desire to escape this looped nightmare but having no knowledge as to how. Sally reached out to her, brushing lightly past the remaining piece of sanity with her mind. "Come with me…" As if someone had turned off a light the images running unbidden through her head were gone and Umah opened her eyes for the first time.

The memory was no longer repeating itself over and over again. Now she could finally feel everything around, the memory was no longer alive. Looking up, she saw the face of her rescuer. A fledgling girl vampire, dirty blond hair in a mess on either side of her face and long down her back. Her pure black eyes watching Umah intently, brimming with worry. The vampire maiden managed a small smile, feeling the tugging effects of fatigue drag her down.

"Thank you." She muttered before finally the darkness claimed her and she drifted back into a dreamless sleep.


	31. Chapter 31: Kain

Chapter 31

KAIN

* * *

Meridian was all but deserted, abandoned by authority and left to rust and crumble. The technology used to propel it to heights never before seen in Nosgoth was gone leaving half of the city in perpetual darkness. Those who had escaped the press gangs of the Sarafan Order when they moved their base of operations to Willendorf now lived behind constantly closed doors. The streets were ruled by thugs and thieves, fighting amongst themselves to determine who would dictate order now.

Still it maintained a sizable population without Sarafan patrols, which was why I chose this location to train my new 'son'. While the emotional immaturity would not last long William was behaving like a frightened child, staying close to me as he walked the deserted streets of the town. In his current state he seemed nothing like either the Boy King I fought with or the Nemesis who ravaged Nosgoth in a history not to be. From a thug we encountered upon arriving I got him better clothes than the decayed bandages I resurrected hum in. A pair of black leather pants and a brown cow hide coat. The boots did not fit him well but since it was either that or barefoot he made do.

I had thrown a disguise of Illusion around us both. As any humans working late were concerned we were a couple of shabby looking seamen on our way home from work. The thugs and thieves apparently were too busy with each other to be bothered with them. The alleyways and streets were no longer guarded by tattooed men armed with steal clubs.

Raziel had discontinued his projected form, retreated completely inside the Reaver blade, or at least for the duration of our stay around humans. This he did at my request. I did not want him alerting us while we had an inexperienced fledgling in our care.

"The touch of water will burn a vampires' skin." I told William once the last person we passed was out of ear shot. "Immersion in it will kill you. Until you grow stronger even rain will scold you like acid. You are to avoid it whatever the cost. Until you grow stronger, even the rain will burn." William nodded and suddenly looked alarmed when I bounded out of reach, leaping high into the air and landing silently on the edge of a roof top.

"I can't follow." He called up, keeping his voice down.

"Yes you can." I told him sternly with a fixed glare from high above. "As a vampire you can jump higher than humans could ever hope to. Now get up here." Unable to disobey my commands he tensed his legs and while still looking unsure of himself, he jumped. Propelled far more than he imagined he nearly slammed into the wall, catching hold of the edge with his arm at the last moment to prevent himself from falling. "You should be able to do better than that." I told him crossing my arms. In actuality I was impressed. This had been intended as a lesson in humility as I had not expected him to jump the distance on his first night as a vampire, yet he made it. Barely but he made it nevertheless. I pulled him up unsteadily and soon we both stood there above the streets.

"Did I do well?" William asked

"Good for a first try." I told him before turning to glance across the row of rooftops; '_Very'_ good for a first try. "Now, try following me." I vaulted forward jumping from rooftop to rooftop, flying across the city streets. All any human heard below was a brief gust of wind that barely caught their notice. I stopped a few blocks away on the roof of a warehouse on the docks and watched back. He was following, not at the speed I travelled by fast for such an experienced fledgling. I supposed that if he really where the descendant of an ancient he would be more adept to the dark gift than most humans. His evolution may proceed considerably faster.

When he landed on the warehouse roof he slipped and fell, landed ungratefully on his back. The ways he succeeded in the tasks I set him was almost comical, and this was really the Nemesis? The two beings, the destroyer of the north and his fledgling, couldn't have been more different. Still, he managed to make it here so we would proceed to the next part of the training.

"Master?" He asked pushing himself up.

"Yes?" I asked retrieving the Soul Reaver from my back and testing the strength of the blade against my thumb.

"Why does your face seem familiar to me?" I paused, before slowly turning to stare at him.

"And just what do you mean by that?" William looked confused; he stopped to rub the base of his temple as he stared down at his own feet like a timid child.

"I'm not sure…I just feel…feel as though I've seen you before you sired me. But… why should I have memories of before my birth?" Now this was certainly an unexpected turn of events. Was he regaining his human memory? No…that was impossible. Or was it?

I knew of no physical reason why he should not recall his past life, just that all vampires raised before him from the grave had the recollection of the lives as humans removed. Vorador perhaps was the exception, but since he was a vampire BEFORE he was revived he did not count in the statistics.

"It is not important." I told him, before placing the Soul Reaver down nearby. "What is important is that you learn how to fight and perhaps even more importantly, how to kill."

"Kill?" William repeated looking up.

"If you do not learn that, you won't survive one day." Since I was the teacher and he was the simply pupil he just nodded squaring his shoulders. I could tell he was confused in more ways than one. He was torn between human and vampire morals and a little disturbed by this new experience. This was a common affliction for fledglings and he would get over it given time. "Now, I want you to attack me using your claws." William glanced down at his hands and the black long finger nails on each finger, naturally sharp to a razor edge and hard as steel. "As a vampire, even a fledgling, you should be fast enough to hit me. Raziel will act as referee-." I glanced to the Reaver blade I had placed down. "-if you don't mind." The transparent projection of his wraith form appeared standing over the sword in an instant, his arms crossed in front of himself. He nodded once to show his willingness to act as judge.

William set himself into an expert fighting stance, alarming himself at how well he knew the moves of unarmed combat. "Very good, now - attack me!" Obeying he darted forward and swiped across my chest with his claws. He missed and I slid backwards at the last second. He tried again and once more I dodged. Frustration at his lack of success was clear on his face. That anger made him slower and his movements almost clumsy. He was making the same mistake that Hylden T'Kral made. "Anger clouds judgement and that can be fatal during battle. Control your emotions!" He stopped to catch his breath, he sprang at me again. I grabbed his lunging arm out of the arm, pulled his weight forward before slamming him to the roof.

"You are too fast." William admitted pushing himself up to his knees.

"You are just as fast as I." I told him impatiently tapping my foot and he climbed back up. "If you wish to move with that agility then you have to focus. Predict the pattern of your opponent and strike where is **_going to be_**, rather than where he is." Launching forward with a sudden burst of speed he apparently took my advice to heart, his claws carving across the skin on my chest as tried to dodge.

"Not bad. You were a little too far forward, next time you should try holding your weight to your centre." Raziel remarked giving William a sharp nod. The fledgling just smiled at him like a young boy receiving appreciation from a parental figure. The four marks across my chest healed and I turned around to face him.

"Offensive strength has its drawbacks if you strike out in the open." I warned William. "Vampires have weakness your enemies can and will try to exploit to kill you. Whenever possible strike from the safety of the shadows." He nodded and I felt it was time to move onto another lesson. A tingling feeling of dah-ja-vu passed over me. This was reminiscent of a time when Umah had re-taught me skills that had been softened during my hibernation.

Finding my thoughts sticking on the image of the female vampire I forced myself back to the present. "Now this next lesson is important. If you expect to live long you will have to know how to parry, block and dodge your opponent's attacks. Now, I will attack you. You will resist by swipes by either dodging around using your heightened agility or push them away with your own strength. Since you don't have a shield I don't expect you to try and block my attacks completely."

"Yes master. I understand." William replied stepping back a few paces and adopted another stance. I copied him and for a brief moment there was silence. Then I shot forward throwing my arm in front as I reached him. He was barely able to dodge the talons as they tore through his coat. He ducked as I tried to cut him across the middle, then he brought his left arm up against my gauntlet, blocking my arm in mid strike. As my physical strength was greatly superior to his he found himself being pushed back.

"Remember if you find your opponent stronger than yourself then break away and attempt to strike him using your speed." This lesson he seemed to take to heart, backing up avoiding a slash as I tried to bring my talons down from above. "Alright that's enough for now." I announced straightening myself up. "How do think he did?" I asked Raziel giving my first born a glance.

"He needs to learn the limits of his physical strength." The ghostly wraith announced looking up. "If you hadn't held back you'd have broken his arm off." The young fledgling glanced down at the arm then up at me, clearly alarmed.

"We will work on that at a later date." I told William placing a hand on his shoulder. "But for now you have learn the basics of combat." There was a sudden change in the air and briefly I glanced up and gazed out across the seemingly unending expanse of rooftops. Blood had just been spilled nearby. William followed my gaze. He could smell it too. Someone had been dealt a fatal wound. "This will be your final test for tonight." I told me. "You are to follow the scent, track down the source of the spilt blood and if there is enough left; feed."

"As you wish master." He replied before jumping forward hurtling across the gap between the rooftops, bounding like a rabbit over chimney pots and tile roofs.

"Certain he is ready to go off on his own?" Raziel asked joining me by my side.

"He needs to be taught to rely of his own skills." I replied retracting the Soul Reaver to my hand using telekinesis, sheathing the sword across my back. "You don't remember how you were when I revived you. Like a lost child. The emotional immaturity has to be broken if one expects him to survive on his own. I don't intend to have him following me forever." Raziel did not reply. He simply narrowed his eyes and looked away, glancing after William as the fledgling disappeared; sliding down gracefully into an alleyway.

"So we abandon him here?" He asked after a moment of silence.

"For now." I replied turning away to look off towards the east. I could feel my own hunger gnawing at me, it had been a while since I had fed and I had given a good deal of blood to William to revive him. It was time to replenish myself.

The nagging emotional tug was trying to force me to stay, to watch over William as he hunted. I had done so with all of my previous kin. But circumstance dictated otherwise. Dissolving into bats, I was gone within a moment.


	32. Chapter 32: William

Chapter 32

William

* * *

-

Feelings of fear, confusion and uncertainty were slowly slipping away. Second by second, the young fledgling felt new strength and confidence flow into him from some unknown source. His legs propelled with inhuman strength he leapt across the gaps between the rooftops with ease, landing with the grace and balance of a cat. At first he clumsily stumbled when he tried to land on sloping roofs but the more he kept at it, the greater his acrobatic skill became.

The air was still, without a single breath of wind to disturb or carry the scent he was tracking. The metallic smell was so pungent William could almost taste it. He came to a sudden stop at the edge of a roof top. Before him was central street were markets had once been held, the gap across to the buildings on the far side too far to jump to.

The street below was deserted devoid of movement in the twilight. A large statue of a man in armour holding a sword and shield stood upon a giant stone pedestal in the centre of the market square. William did not recognize the cross like symbol on the chest plate of the man's armour.

A soft gurgling sound reached William's ears and glancing down towards the street. The smell of blood seemed to intensify as he directed his attention that way. Sliding down the wall, using a stone overhang to break his fall halfway, the fledgling came to the street. His feet touched the ground with barely the lightest of footsteps.

Fresh red streaking the ground below him, zig zaging left and right until it arched around a corner into an alleyway. William instinctively put two fingers to the trail, feeling the minuscule warmth left within it. His trail had been made less than a minute ago by his best guess.

Following it around the corner, he saw it carried on for a short distance until it ended and where it did, he saw a body slumped against the side of the wall. It was a well build man with black rune like tattoos running all over his body and face. A bent iron mace lay at his side a mere couple of inches from were it had fallen from his hand.

William approached and kneeled down to get a better look. This man was dead that he could tell instantly. He couldn't hear a sound coming from between the lips, not a single breath. A deep cut had been made to his stomach. He had been cut and fatally wounded, crawled away before finally dying here.

Instinct took over and William pulled the head to the side and sank his fangs into the waiting neck. The body was still warm and the blood invigorated. This was his first feeding and for the most part he had been driven by urges beyond his control but when rational though came back he broke away and staggered back across the alley.

Something was wrong. Very wrong. The blood he had taken was not having the effect he anticipated it would have. The blood haze was vanished in a second and was quickly being replaced by something else, images surging so quickly William found himself intruding on his very thoughts. Hit hard by a wave of recall that slammed into him like a tidal wave the fledgling was thrown into the ether.

Memories he never knew he had blurred into being in an instant, throwing him back through time to a luxurious throne room. Laden with silks, fine ornaments of gold and silver and pictures of people he did not recognize upon the walls. The crest of some family was laid out on the floor in an exquisite carpet. The throne was the centre of the room, everything placed to honour it as it's apex. And upon that throne, William sat; content in a place he never knew existed.

An old man stood before him. Bald with a thin face and sharp nose, a looped figure eight tattoo placed directly in the centre of his forehead. His robes were plain brown yet ringed with gold and silver. His one hand he used as a walking stick a long staff with a large purl directly on it's top with a serpent twisting around it, the mouth open wide as it tried to swallow the stone at the apex.

"Yes, these weapons you have provided will see to that." William found himself saying in the distant recall of the memory. "Pray tell, Moebius. What game do you play?" He asked again giving the old man a glance.

"None, my lord." The old man replied with a short bow, his cold grey eyes never leaving William for a moment. "I only wish to aid you in vanquishing your foes. The weapons are but a token of my good will."

William did not understand, where were these images coming from?

"And the news you bring. A vampire sent to slay me." He asked as the memory continued. "Where did you come upon such knowledge?" The old man, Moebius, straightened his back and stood perfectly upright; his face alight with a thin smile.

"'Tis of no consequence, sire. 'Twas only out of concern for your Majesty's life." His tone did not sound all that sincere.

"Perhaps, perhaps . . ." William sighed leaning on the arm rest. "Very well, then. You may leave me, now." The old man nodded slowly once and turned to leave. "But should I wish to speak with you?" Moebius looked back and his smiled widened.

"I will know, your Majesty, and I shall be there in time." The next instant, William found himself back in the alleyway pressed up against the wall breathing hard. His eyes were wide in a potent mix of fear, confusion and utter astonishment. How long he sat there in that state he wasn't sure but when he glanced down he saw his hands covered in the nearby corpse's blood. Horrified instantly beyond all reason he desperately tried to wipe it off on anything he could find, even his own coat.

What was he doing? Taking the blood of others is wrong; a part of him shouted loudly within the confines of his own mind.

I need it to survive, argued another; I must have more! Crying out he purposely swung his head back against the side of the stone wall hard. The pain shooting through his skull and down his spine silenced the conflicting voices within as if they were a pair of children being told off by a parent.

What was happening? What was that memory and where had it come from?

Snapping his head to the left he looked up just in time to see a knife come flying at his neck. His hand lanced up at the last moment grabbing his attacker by the wrist and using their own momentum to carry them into a fling that shot them across the alleyway and into the wall on the far side. It was a sleek figured wrapped in concealing dark clothes, a thief; one of the many battling with the thugs for dominance of the city. Rebounding, she growled angrily before making another lunge at William.

The fledgling dodged the thrust before lashing out with his claws. Striking her across the middle he felt the fabric tear but he did not carve flesh. Stunned by the agility he displayed, the thief shot back to a safe distance. William prepared to launce after her when several volley of bolts shot out of the darkness and pinned the edges of his coat to the ground. Throwing back with his clothes he was strapping down, the surpassingly strong bolts keeping him from moving his arms to free himself.

Two more Thieves armed with cross bows quickly joined the one who had attacked him first. One of them drew a dagger from a concealed pocket within her clothing, the blade glinting bright silver in the moonlight.

"Kill him!" Another stated and quickly the dagger was readied into a strike. Panic, confusion, fear, anger; emotions of the strongest kind began surging through William like a wave that washed over everything else. The blood hunger that had consumed him before was gone, as if it had never been there.

Suddenly, William just went limp like a rag doll as if he felt something within him; some block snap and fall way. Then the pain came.

Crying out, he surged forward breaking the bolts that held him. The thieves all staggered back, looking on in alarm as the coat William wore began to swell as something from underneath began to push out. With one sudden thrust, two large feathered winged broke out and spread either side. As if he had sprouted raven wings, the feathers on these new limbs were all pitch black and outlined with a single streak of silver and royal blue. They beat twice, the sudden feeling passing through them causing them to shiver. Slowly, William raised his head; showing his eyes were darkening, changing from yellow to bright gold.

"Forget this!" One of the thieves carried dropping her knife in fright and making a break for the alleyway entrance. The other two lost their nerve soon after and made a break for it.

The one bringing up the rear barely got past the street and she was sweep up into the air in a swift arch of feathers, her cry of alarm silenced before it could leave her mouth.

The other two broke up, one running for the relative safety of another alley and the other making for a church hard behind a couple of buildings. The one that tried to escape through the alley did not reach the other end. Her scream carried on through the city, echoing off the many walls until it sounded like the yell of a demon from the abyss.

The surviving thief darted into the church hard as quickly as she could, sliding behind a large tomb stone as quickly as she could and pausing to catch her breath. Just what the heck was that monstrous…thing? Mist rolling in from the river that parted the city rolled freely around the tomb stones, grey shapes in the air highlighted only by the light of the full moon.

Risking a glance, the thief leaned forward and peered past the stone plague to the alleyway through which she had made her escape. It was empty, the far end completely concealed by the fog. Gripping her cross bow close to herself she slowly backed away. She could hear her heart beating a thousand times in her chest.

Boy, she and the girls certainly picked the wrong target for an evenings profit. It had looked like a easy meal but looks were clearly misleading. A loud rustle of feathers came from behind her and she shot around with a startled cry. Nothing by endless fog met her and her bolt as her itchy finger pulled the trigger.

Something struck her hard from behind, forcing her to fall forward onto her front; the cross bow flying from her hands. Before she could rise, a foot slammed down on her back pinning her to the grave topsoil. The gentle edges of feathers brushed past her eyes and suddenly there was hot breath by her neck.

She froze; eyes wide in utter fear.

This moment seemed to last for an eternity before finally the foot lifted from her back and there was a sudden gust of wind. The thief remained perfectly still for a good while after that, but after a moment she glance up to see there was nothing there. Instinctively she grabbed her cross bow and made a dash for the alleyways.

From the spire of the church above a winged figure watched her go. Perched on the edge of the balcony here an overhanging gargoyle, William crouched watching the city rooftops. His new wings spread out behind them, testing themselves by folding and unfolding, exercising themselves without his direct thought. His body was unused to the sensation of having an extra set of limbs so it was taxing the muscles to see how far they would stretch. Having already fed enough to satisfy his hunger, he had let this one go. Despite his moral objections to the hungry, his body had overridden his will and forced him to feed on two of the thieves anyway.

William himself was, quite reasonably, confused. But not as much as he supposed he should be. The physical mutation did not seem to both him that much. The moment the wings emerged from his back he knew that it was a normal part of his grow and this was not the end of it, there was more to come.

What ran circles around his head were the memories peeking through from behind a wall inside his mind. Locked away they were trying to break free, to return and those recalled events showed a life he had never known. A life of nobility and luxury, of great palaces standing aloft expansive cities and of servants waiting on him hand and foot. It was like he was thrown half the pieces of a jig saw puzzle and the picture they tried to form was completely unrecognizable.

But one thing was already very clear; he had known life far beyond the raising given to him by the Master.

"Who am I?" He asked himself glancing down at his clawed hands.

"One who does not deserve life." A voice replied. Glancing up sharply William watched as the long shadow cast by the moon light began changing, warping; twisting out of their places to surge up the wall around him. Acting on new instincts he beat his wings and they carried him into the air but being inexperienced in flight he found he couldn't co-ordinate his wings and he nearly crashed to the graveyard below. The shadows shot around him, coursing down the side of the church and slipping through the tombstones like water.

Quickly they formed a ring around him, keeping him surrounded. "You should have stayed in your grave vampire." One of the shadows twisted and bent, moving to adopt a physical shape; arms and legs molded out of darkness. After a moment it became a man, wrapped in a thick black cloak over gleaming, silver Sarafan armor. "While you are of a noble blood line and a saint to our order, we can not ignore what you are." He clicked his fingers and the hilt of a sword appeared between his fingers. "So I shall grant you mercy and release you from the abyss of the undead."


	33. Chapter 33: Summons to Midguard

The Sarafan gestured out to either side with his sword and the shades around him obeyed his whim, flying out in an arched line to completely surround the fledgling vampire. Acting on new instincts and impulses William spread his wings and tried to take to the air. So unused to the new muscles and limbs he found his efforts to fly completely useless, his own brain had simply now caught up with the new attachments yet.

"My name is Swift." The Sarafan announced holding his sword up to his eyes height. It had arcane runes inscribed down its length and their lines were glowing a fierce blood red light that highlighted the shadows of his face. He had a pencil thin moustache and a triangular black beard on his chin. He was bald apart from a ponytail at the back of his head, tied back by a red ribbon. "I am one of the eight elite under Lord Sabre and your challenger at the time of election."

"Challenger? What do you mean?" William asked, finding his path blocked on all side by these creatures, made from the darkest shadows; a triad of glowing violet eyes set in the centre of their near formless heads.

"You don't know?" Swift sounded most surprised; he lowered his sword in mute awe as if stunned by the fact. Then he rolled his head back and laughed and as he did his long black clock flowing back over his shoulders to reveal his armour. "Then Lord Aurora was correct, your side really doesn't know… even the master thought you should be at least 'aware' our intentions." He seemed barely unable to control his laughter. "But it seems even the mighty Scion of Balance is in ignorance." He leaned on his sword as if it were a cane, the tip poised perfectly on the ground in front of him and the hilt in his cupped hands. "Well, personally I can tell you that makes me most happy."

Swift bowed shortly. "Your majesty, you are being used by the forces of darkness for their own selfish gains. The vampires have defiled your holy corpse and tried to turn our greatest hero against us."

"Hero…" William repeated looking confused. He glanced down at his hands. The skin was near bleached white and he could see the veins and arteries through it. His new wings folded in, curving around himself protectively. "I…no… no stay away!"

"Do you see? Even in purgatorial un-life, your divine nature tries to manifest itself." Swift continued, slowly walking forward with his sword in hand. He gestured with his blade to the raven black angelic wings, clearly himself in awe at their beauty. "You, dragged from heaven by the actions of the devil himself; a saint forced back into his corpse. You are an angel profaned, your majesty. You must be set free."

"Please…" William began, backing away as much as he could without being within reach of the shadowy creatures. "I don't want to die!"

"You already have." Swift replied without looking up as he ran the tip of his blade along his hand; the metal sword scrapping loudly against the gauntlet. "This existence is not life, merely entrapment. I shall return you to the wheel of fate and to the spinner, god himself."

The two dark creatures behind him lashed out and grabbed him by the arms, pulling him out. Another two pinned his legs to the floor and the others grabbed his wings and with all six limbs immobilised, they dragged him down to the ground and pinned him there. William struggled but despite being near formless, the hands pinning him down possessed strength greater than his.

"Do not fret sire." Swift began. "I will make it mercifully quick." Unable to watch the blade, William closed his eyes and looked away. Confusion more than fear was ripping through him and tearing at his very concept of reality, memories from an unknown origin pumping into his mind.

Again he was thrown back in history, back to that throne room that was so familiar and inviting. He saw himself, standing alone there waiting; the hilt of a claymore sword in his hand. The sword itself was a strange design, a blade that constantly curved back and forth right up until the tip. The hilt was a fanged skull with a pair of curved horn like protrusions panning out either side.

Suddenly the doors at the far end of the chamber were flung open and another figure advanced into the room.

"Ahhh yes.." William found himself saying in that distant memory as he turned to confront the intruder. A tall man with pale skin and white hair, and hard set red eyes directed towards him. His armour was mostly black, with red chain mail underneath. "The vampire." In his grasp was a sword that was a complete mirror image of the one he held. The two were completely indistinguishable from one another. As the two swords neared the room around them seemed to pulse with a new found energy, but so fixed on the intruder William had no noticed. It was only by looking back now that he was even observed. "Moebius told me you would come."

Without a word in reply, the intruder lunged forward and swung his sword down in an arch. William blocked it with his own blade and when the two blades met in the air, everything around seemed to ripple and bend as if it might all dissolve into liquid like a melting oil painting.

Then that horrible instant came when they clashed close enough for William to get a good look at his opponent's eyes, those familiar eyes. In that sickening moment he realized he was fighting the younger version of his master. Suddenly, the young Kain brought his sword down so hard that it broke the blade William himself was holding. Before anything could be done, the vampire flew forward and sank his fangs into William's neck.

"Master…" William began, now completely designed to death. This existence confused him and despair was close behind, filling him to the brim. "Why?"

"You mustn't die." A voice whispered to him, gentle but brimming with strength. "Not yet dear prince."

"Who… who are you?" William asked glancing around through the memory as it faded and the image of a creature appeared in its stead.

It was a wolf of some kind, larger than any others of its kind with a thick black shaggy mane hanging out behind it. The fur was a shining silver and in the light of the full moon above shone like the surface of a lake. Behind it the looming presence of coming snow fall hung waiting to fall, the outline of a ruined castle half buried in the drifts. It was silent, staring down at him with wide and almost glowing blue eyes. Slowly it raised its head and stared away into the ether.

"Come to me…" It's voiced echoed out of oblivion, spreading out past the fledglings own mind and body. "Come to me elected nine, come to me. Come to Midguard."

Williams' eyes snapped open as he felt a connection the likes of which he had never felt before lance through the land. Eight others scattered throughout Nosgoth felt it as well.

In Malek's Bastion, Vorador and Janos heard the voice speak into their heads and at once knew it for a telepathic message but neither of them could determine the origin. Sally, still recovering from the development of her first dark gift felt the message sting into her brain, but that was quickly forgotten when she felt the connection to one who held her heart.

"Sally…" Ewoden began, standing up so sharply it surprised the larger Seroli, Obelisk who was sitting beside him.

"Ewoden?" She muttered, her eyes widening. She could feel his presence across that indescribable link. She embraced it, throwing her mind in his direction.

Lying within the chapel of the bastion, Umah had remained lifeless for years now, her body slowly healing from the wound that had almost taken her life. Suddenly her eyes snapped open and she sat up, sharply inhaling as if it were a chore.

"Kain!" She cried out reaching for the ceiling with her eyes wide, her shrill cry echoing out through the corridors of the fortress.

"Midguard…the summons." The Hylden Seer repeated, glancing out eastwards towards the rising sun. Her eyes shining with relief and hope, she was almost on the verge of tears. "So… I am worthy…" She had not been sure if she was right, that perhaps it had been wishful thinking. She was, after all, a Hylden and considering what she was being called for it was a tad hypocritical. But still this was her destiny, and that of the others. "Kain… we shall meet at Midguard and I will tell you want you wish to know there. Our destines rush towards us."

Hearing the Seers distant whisper through this link, Kain slowly opened his eyes and glanced up towards the sky. This link was burning into his mind and he was forcing it out. The vampire did not wish to be linked to any of those people and forced it out. The last thing he wanted was someone inside his soul, let alone eight of them.

"Midguard?" Raziel repeated, hearing the phrase through his own telepathic communication in my head. "What is Midguard?"

"I do not know." Kain replied. "But I intend to find out."

The Princess of Willdendorf, Alicia Ottmar, glanced around rapidly in confusion trying to find out what was happening; unable to determine where the voice was coming from or why she felt connected to people she had never met before; scattered across such a distance. It was unlike anything she had felt before, an emotional and even spiritual link with eight other beings.

She stood up and found that her heart was bleeding for one of those in the link, one in deadly peril and about to be struck down. She could feel his fear and utter confusion and despite her steadfast and ambitious nature, the Princess called out to him through that wonderful link.

Feeling that strength and compassion of another running through him William looked up to see Swift's sword blade coming down at him with the sharpened tip ready to pierce his heart. Before it could breech his skin, he tore his arms free from the grasp of the shadow and slapped the blade away so it lanced off to the side and all Swift ended up impaling was the ground by William's shoulder. Before the Sarafan could react, William drew his hand back and landed a punch across his face. Sent flying backwards the man slammed into the ground and rolled a short distance.

In the confusion, William spun his body around in a 360 degree flip and clawed at the shadows. While these beings were mostly darkness, he could feel his claws striking something solid. They howled out at the strikes as if wounded and flew backwards as Swift picked himself up.

Blood was running from the corner of his mouth and he appeared angry. His shadow creatures flew around him like a protective shield.

"I am William." The young fledgling began spreading his raven wings out either side. "I do not wish to die. I will not die!" He looked Swift straight in the face. "No matter how much you wish it, I will not die!" He raised both hands and arcane runes began appearing as light in a circle around him, incantations William had never heard before on his lips. Magic's flowing through him from beyond time surged through his veins. Light manifested between his fingers, forming itself into a ball before slamming forward. In the presence of illumination the creature howled once before they were silenced, melting away and vanishing. Swift was left without anything at his flank.

"Vampiric fool!" The Sarafan hissed, wiping the blood away with the back of his gauntlet. "I offer you a return to the divine and you spit in my face! So be it!" Fuming with rage he picked up his sword, before sliding it back into the sheath as his side. His cloak folded around him becoming an impassable barrier of black. "I wished to spare you the humiliation of judgement, but since you have thrown in your lot with the evil then you will not escape your fate. We shall meet, 'your majesty', at the election time. And then it will not be to heaven I send you!" Slowly, his form melted into the darkness of the background and disappeared, fading away into nothing.

William was left standing alone, breathing hard. He collapsed to his knees, wings still spread heavily on his back.

Suddenly a pair of hairy paws appeared in his line of sight and glancing up he saw the wolf sitting there in front of him once more. Its glossy coat shining in the moonlight, the eyes still a powerful blue.

"Very well done sweet prince." It told him without its lips moving at all. "The fates were, as always right, you have earned your place in the elected nine here this night." William just folded down, tired and still very confused.

"I don't understand…" He admitted.

"I know." The wolf replied. "But you will, soon you will." William was just looking at his hands, the memory of that instant where he had called upon magic he never knew he had within him.

"How did I…" He began.

"All will be explained once the nine are united, come to Midguard William the Just. Come and realize your heritage." The image of the wolf faded away and an imprint was left with the young fledgling, a sudden desire he could explain to travel east; to the mines of the city province.

The link he had shared with the others began to fade, the connection slipping away bit by bit. Before it vanished completely, he called out to the one who had given him the compassion to fight. He could not see her face but could feel the soul alongside his. He could feel her attention on him.

"Thank you." His message passed through. A reply was coming, but before it could arrive the link dissipated and it died within.

The Princess had been glad it had, her reply had been a foolish thing to say especially considering she did not know who she was replying to. But through that link she had seen his soul and marvelled at its innocence.

"Are you alright your majesty?" A voice asked. Alicia glanced back to see a serving maid standing there waiting for a reply. A silver tray with a tea pot and a few pieces of cutlery were in her grasp.

"Yes… yes I'm fine." She replied, running a hand back through her hair. "Go and tell my father I will be absent from the castle for I wish to go on a short trip." The maid bowed low and left.

"Someone wants us to go to the Provincial Mines?" Vorador asked out load stating the obvious.

"Apparently so." Janos replied looking thoughtful. The need to go to the mines was still fresh in the both of them. Was this an elaborate trap of some kind?

"I do not understand sire." Vorador sighed. "Just what is Midguard?" Before the ancient could reply, the door to their private chamber flew open and Sally flew in, tears of happiness flowing from her eyes.

"Sire, he's alive! He's alive, oh sire he's alive!" She cried; throwing herself at Vorador's feet. Neither of them needed to ask of whom she spoke.

"We know; we felt his presence as well." Janos replied. "He was one of the nine the link was shared with."

"Nine." Vorador repeated looking distant. "Nine, again that number…" He reached across his desk and picked up the scroll that Ewoden and Sally had brought him. The Lupine Gospels, the ancient prophecies made by the Seroli seers. "One wielding blood and soul shall rise and be one and not of time." He began reading off the passage which he had underlined. "Right companions she he have and they shall be one and not of time. Overcome deception of time and guise of death shall he, Scion of world's hope. Lies and treachery shall he slice through with blade of first born soul.

Warrior of neither demon nor angel, but liberator of all shall be he."

"Kain without a doubt." A voice added. All of them looked up to see Umah leaning against the doorframe, unable to support her own weight and using it to steady herself. Her eyes were half craned open and her hair was let out of its pony tail, flowing down past her shoulders.

"Umah…" Vorador began. She staggered forward into the room and collapsed. Janos darted forward and caught her in his arms.

"Please, take me to Midguard…" She begged. "Kain will be there… please take me to him."

-


	34. Chapter 34: Kain

Chapter 34: Kain

* * *

The infamous' provincial mines were a place of continued almost ritualistic death. Slaves working there over the centuries had been killed by the score, either by rock falls or under the near perverse whip of their overseers. Now that the Sarafan gave the orders amongst the humans, the slaves were being forced to work throughout the day and night to produce tones of ore to be refined into metals for use in the Orders' army.

I had possessed human slaves himself, but the sight of these mines sickened even me. Corpses, old and fresh, lay everywhere without any thought given for burial or sanitation. From the wounds on the bodies it was clear most of them had been whipped, one poor wretch had had his entire back caved in. I had not treated my slaves well, I can not deny that, but even I showed them dignity.

"Come to Midguard." I repeated, finding the image of a wolf still haunting my mind. Why I obeyed its summons I didn't know, considering I had far more important matters to attend to, but something told me that it was vitally important I go. Still, this seemed like time I could not afford to waste.

"I suppose you could put it down to sabotage of Sarafan supplies." Raziel suggest, sensing my uneasiness. A grin spread across my face. I could live with 'sabotage'.

The residual image felt by that strange link showed me the mines entrance and a tunnel within that I must find within. It would take me to where I was being summoned. I had been to the mines before. As a fledgling vampire, my quest had drawn me down into it and to the tomb of Ottmar's ancestor. I had never taken the opportunity to explore the mines completely.

Crouching behind a rocky outcrop on the outskirts of the mines entrance, I watched and waited. The slaves and workers were switching shifts now, a steady line of exhausted looking men, woman and even children marching out. The way they dragged their shovels and picks showed they were close to collapsing. In the opposite direction, fresher looking people went in. All of it was being overseen by several large fat men armed with whips to keep the lines moving. Several ordinary Sarafan guards stood around the perimeter and one of them was taking a leak behind a dead tree. Most of them were ordinary foot soldiers but by the watch towers were several archers.

"There are no garrisons nearby." Raziel's form whispered, shimmering into translucent form beside me. "We do not have to rely on stealth anymore." I counted the guards and including the slave drivers they numbered twenty in all. Nodding once, I slowly drew the Soul Reaver and held it at arms length. Raziel disappeared, his attention focused back into the sword.

The first guard didn't even see his death coming. The tip of the Reaver smashed through the front of his chest, tearing out bone and armour as it went. Falling limp he crashed to the ground. Before the others could react I was charging at them, the Reaver swinging around in an arch. Two of them were sliced in half, their top halves flying into the air.

"Vampire!" The cry went up and the archers began to draw their bows. Grabbing one of them telekinetically, I tore him off the ground and using him as a weapon; I smashed through the wooden legs of the watch tower. With no support it began to swing to the side.

Then it fell, landing on top of the archers as they loosed their arrows. Dodging the projectiles with ease, I ran forward at the remaining guards.

Before any of them could so much as draw their swords, heads started rolling. Their blood flowed from their bodies as they ruptured open and its sweet taste restored me, fending the hunger off.

Seeing this, the slavers dropper their whips and a made a run for it. Before they were out of range, I took hold of them with telekinesis and threw them forced with such force that went they smashed into the trees their necks were instantly broken.

The human slaves watched in fear as I straightened up and with one swift motion, slid the Soul Reaver back into place.

"Be gone." I told them without looking back. They needed no further encouragement. They dropped their picks and ran, almost scrabbling over each other for the now unguarded exit.

"I thought you might arrive before myself." Glancing up, I saw the Hylden Seer crouched on an overhanging branch. "Destiny will always make you the fastest Kain."

"Seer, I have done as you asked. I have resurrected William." I called up as she slid over the side and fell to the ground with acrobatic grace. "Now, tell me what I want to know." She shook her head.

"All will be revealed at Midguard Kain, it is, after all, why we have been summoned here."

"Summoned?"

"We have a purpose Kain, all nine of us. The time of election draws near." Again there was that phrase, 'the time of Election'. The Druid Aurora had used it before and seemed surprised that I was not familiar with it. "We are already here; we should wait for the other seven to arrive before we can begin."

"I grow tired to these games Seer; I want to know precisely what is going on."

"Patience is a virtue Kain, one I suggest you adopt." With that, she turned away and crossed her arms. Instead of pressing the issue, knowing full well I would never get a straight answer I decided to let it drop for now. Answers had been promised and all I had to do was wait.

Raziel's projected form manifested itself nearby and the Seer gave him a glance. She smiled, before turning away again. Hours began to melt away and the night encroached, one by one the stars opening across the sky.

It was the Seer who first noticed company. She turned her head and gazed off towards the south, down the long stretch of road that lead down towards the city Province. Then I heard it, the loud clattering of horse's hooves and the churning of wheels. Out of the nights gloom came a horse drawn carriage. The man driver the two horses on was dressed in black with upturned collars and a top hat, as if afraid to show his face.

The carriage stopped a short distance away and the door opened. Two knights of the Willdendorf Militia came out, clad in their white armour with the red lion of the king on their breast plate. Even in centuries their armour design had not changed. It was men wearing armour such as this that had made up the army of hope in the battle of the last stand.

After them came Princess Alicia Ottmar, descendant of King Ottmar; the man I had returned the soul of his daughter to after it had been confiscated by the mad toy maker Elzevir. She had changed from elegant gowns expected from a princess into something more fitting for travel outside the palace. Simple clothes made from common materials.

"So you were summoned as well?" The Seer asked. "I had a feeling you might be one of the nine, you had all the deserving qualities of the candidate."

"I left my kingdom at a most inopportune time." She replied as the carriage door shut behind her. "The Sarafan's political power is beginning to wane, but if they triumph in the battle against the clans in the northern mountains then their hold becomes absolute. It is becoming harder for my resistance movement to counter them." She gestured to the two knights at her side. They descended to one knee and removed their helms to reveal their faces. "These are my body guards." Alicia explained. "Fitzroy…" My sight was drawn to the man at her left. He was young, barely out of his twenties with short chestnut brown hair. "And Jessup." The other was considerably older with a thick grey bread and moustache but not a wrinkle on his face. "They are loyal to me and my cause. They will not betray us."

"It would be of little consequence if they did." I replied. It was not as if either of them could do anything to hurt me. It was about then that the Princess caught sight of the now ghostly Raziel. She said nothing but her eyes looked the image over in apartment distress.

"I will not harm you." Raziel assured her. "But keep in mind, that you can not harm me." That next statement seemed to be addressed to the two knights who had their hands on the hilt of their swords. Seemingly satisfied with this, the Princess waved to her coach man; who nodded once and turned the carriage around. It made a retreat back down to the road and vanished into the night.

"So Seer, what is this Midguard?" She asked addressing the Hylden.

"You will not get an answer out of her." I replied instead. "Better to wait and see for yourself." Time began to slip by as we waited. Patience's were wearing thin, mostly my own; but I could see that Alicia did not like waiting outside in the cold.

The air seemed to open up suddenly and two figures leapt out of the darkness, landing with acrobatic ease on the ground nearby. Fitzroy and Jessup drew their blades as they sensed an enemy. The scent that reached my nostrils was that of a wild animal, but intermixed was a familiar smell.

"Hold, we mean no harm." One of them said in a familiar voice. Now they were in the light I could see one of them to be the former Sarafan Knight Ewoden. His silver armour had been dented and torn in places and now it was mostly insulating furs. Two axes, Havoc and Malice were strapped in an 'X' across his back and a Sarafan style longbow was at his side. He seemed more weathered than the last time I laid eyes on him, several new scars lancing down across his cheek.

His companion was a larger man wearing the same style armour. His hair was a plume arching up over his head. "Kain? What are you doing here?"

"Like you I was summoned." I replied to his startled question. "Don't ask me why, talk to the Hylden over there. That's if of course you can pry anything from between her lips."

"Hylden?" The former knight repeated. He glanced the Seer over before apparently growing disinterested. "Where is Sally? I felt her through the link. She was summoned here too."

"She had yet to arrive." The Seer replied. "She and Vorador will not be long; they'll be bringing most of the others with them." Her gaze wandered to Ewoden's companion.

"Friend of yours?" I asked giving the man a similar glance.

"This is Obelisk, member of the Seroli smiths." He replied. "He's been helping me with a…er little problem." I decided not to press into the topic and let my gaze wander off.

Suddenly the light from the half moon above was eclipsed and this caught all our attention. Glancing up, we saw a form silhouetted by the moon. A pair of wide feathered and dark wings spread wide from the shoulders. Then it plummeted to the ground, cascading down until he was only a few feet from the ground. It tried to slow its descent but its landing was rough. It tumbled down across the ground until it rolled to a stop nearby.

"William?" I asked glaring down as the fledgling vampire picked himself up. When his eyes met mine I could tell that the emotionally immature being I had revived barely a night before was gone. His flaxen yellow eyes burning into me, filled with intense anger; but confusion and fear lurking behind it like a shadow.

"Kain." He replied, his new wings folding themselves behind him. His coat had been torn and all that remained of it hung around his waist, tied back by a leather belt. "Why didn't you tell me?" I didn't reply to that. "I was human…and then you killed me. Why?"

"I don't know what you mean." I told him trying to maintain a straight face but by then it was too late to bluff it out.

"I was a king… the memories are still blurred and all I can make out are hazy images of a cherished life of nobility; but the one thing I do recall all too clearly is you taking my life." His confrontation tone set my nerves on edge.

"I took your life because if I did not you would have raped all of Nosgoth." I finally replied. "You may have been loved by your people then, but in time that would changed. People would curse you as their Nemesis, the bringer of death and destruction to the land.

You were young and only just starting out, completely inexperienced as a leader. You were vulnerable then and only then." Silence endured between the two of us.

"Then why did bring me back?" He asked after that moment had endured.

"Because without you I can not accomplish my own goals." I told out straight. "I made a mistake in killing you. Because of your sainted death, the people cursed the vampires instead of the Nemesis as their enemy and now this blood stained history is the result.

I'm still trying to figure out which was has been worse; the wrath of the Nemesis' horde or Moebius' vampire hunters."

"It matters not." The seer announced before either of us could argue any further. "William was summoned here because his destiny stretches beyond the need we have for him. Whether for good or ill, you revived him because it was meant to be Kain. He is your son."

"He is not my father." William spat and turned away.

"And he is not my son." I added in spite at his back. The fledgling shuddered before he continued on. I had not enjoyed that exchange. It had felt like I had been saying the same words to any of my other offspring.

"Are we all on the same side?" Ewoden asked out load looking confused.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Raziel replied with a shrug. William wandered off and sat himself down on a rocky slab, his head hung low and his wings folded around him protectively. I stood away from him, by back to them all and my arms folded.

William glanced up when he felt a hand on his shoulder. His eyes met the smile of Alicia. Not a word passed between them; they each recognised the soul of the other through the link they had all briefly shared.

"Vorador and Janos are the last to arrive." The seer announced. "They should be bringing the remaining two with them as well. Only once we are all here can we get started." Even as she spoke the beginnings of a translocation spell began to gather nearby, the air twitching and bubbling with magic. Then the physical manifestation took place and four figures began to emerge. Even before the spell was complete one of them hurled itself out of the midst and tackled Ewoden to the ground.

"Your alive, you're alive!" Sally nearly wept into his shoulder, her arms wrapped around his shoulder. "I thought the Sarafan… oh you're alive!" My eyes wandered away from the pathetic romantic scene to those who had just come along with her.

Janos was the first to arrive, stepping out of the spells depths and spreading his wings into the night. He looked like he was about to say something but it was then he sighted the Hylden seer and the words died in his throat. Vorador came next, but my eyes were not drawn to him; they were instantly captivated by who he was helping steady herself.

I shut out my eyes at the sight, unable to accept it.

"Do not be a coward. If you truly feel remorse Kain, then open your eyes." Vorador told me sharply and I found myself obeying. In his arms was Umah.

Her hair was out of its ponytail, falling like running away across her shoulders. Her eyes were half open and fixed directly on me.

"Kain." Even the sound of her voice was like a war hammer to my soul. Once more the image of that night where I took her life, putting my ambition before my heart; replayed in my mind. "Kain… please, talk to me."

"And say what?" I asked. "For me it's been over a thousand years and I can still recall our last meeting with crystal clarity. I killed you…" I looked her directly into the face. "What could you possibly have to say to your murderer?" She gently slipped out of Vorador's arm and tried to steady herself on her own two feet.

"Only that I understand." She replied. "You are not the monster you once where. You have changed."

"Have I?" I asked. "You were only one in a line of many people who have had their blood spilled by my hands."

"I can vouch for that." William added with a hint of venom in his voice. I ignored him; I was too preoccupied with this moment than with his quips.

"What would you prefer Kain?" She asked. "That I harbour hatred against you? That I would try to exact vengeance and hunt you mercilessly to that end?"

"I'm so used to that it would be far more comfortable."

"Well I will not. We were both in the wrong. We both should have had more faith."

"Faith?" I asked. "Just what does the word 'faith' mean to me?" Unable to take anymore I turned away. "Until I know for myself what it means you are dead to me." I walked off leaving Umah in the arms of her sire.

"You go to far Kain." Vorador began angrily, but was silenced when she held out an arm to stop him.

"Let him do what he must." She glanced up at my retreating back. "But regardless of his decision I am not leaving his side."

"As entertaining as this is, we have more pressing issues." The seer reminded us all. "Time is not a resource we can afford to loose."

"Indeed." Vorador replied regaining his composure. "We left the Cabal at a very bad time. The battle between the clans and the Order is almost about to begin. I hope this trip will not take much time."

"It will take as much time as it needs to." The seer stated. "Midguard is the place I went to escape when the pillars banished my people. It exists beyond borders of the known world and is a place of destiny.

It was there I learned all I know and from which place I learned what path I would take, if I was deemed worthy by fate; true fate and not the manipulations of the Elder. But I will explain more on the way. Come, Midguard beckons."


	35. Chapter 35: Ewoden

Chapter 35: Ewoden

* * *

-

The mines of Willdendorf were like a nightmare. Returning to this place filled Ewoden with more horror and dread than he thought possible. They had been bad in his own time, but now they were exponentially worse; he glared around at the horrific conditions before him. The slaves were forced to toil underground for hours on end without food or water, often exposed to deadly gasses as they dug for the metals the Order demanded.

Sally had spent her human life in these mines as a slave as well before being rescued by Vorador and made into a vampire. Returning to this place was not an easy thing for either of them. The former Sarafan felt her hand tighten around his. He returned the gesture and tried to think about something else.

His thoughts returned to Ramak, the master Smith of the Seroli. When he announced his intentions to go to Midguard as summoned Ramak appeared slightly bemused.

"Midguard?" He had asked. "I thought it only a piece of prophet ramblings."

"You know of such a place my lord?" Obelisk asked in reply. Ramak nodded and folded his furry arms.

"You will not find it on any current map of Nosgoth as according to folklore it exists beyond the eastern mountain range. As the mountains are currently impassable no one had been able to go there in centuries. Supposedly is where our first seers went when they conceived the Lupine gospels. I was in the south of Nosgoth at the time so I can not tell you with certainty whether that true or not, but still Midguard is revered a place of foretelling; of foresight into the future and where destinies can be foretold." Ewoden's thoughts were interrupted when he felt Sally's gently push her way into his mind through the link they shared in the whisper. Her presence within his head felt stronger than usual, as if her own influence had been greatly expanded.

"I evolved my first dark gift." She explained silently through the Whisper. "It allows me entry to nearly any mind. It is a healing gift; it allows me to repair mental damage."

"Such a gift suits you." He replied without hesitation.

Princess Alicia had not been in ignorance of the fact that the kingdom had slaves, but the horrible conditions forced upon them as beyond cruel. It was perverse. Even the vampires had more humanity than this? Did her father know what the Order was doing to ensure its hold?

The sight of the crushed bodies still half buried in rubble only deepened her resolve that the Order had to be removed from power and destroyed. If it was forcing the great Lion province to commit atrocities like this, in the name of righteousness of all things, then it was evil.

"Do you find my presence disturbing Janos Audron?" The seer asked. Their expedition team numbered over ten and since she seemed to know where she was going, she was leading them. The ancient vampire had remained quiet ever since he arrived, as if afraid to speak.

"No." He replied eventually. "Just unusual." The seer chuckled at this.

"That is natural. Your kind and mine have been enemies for eons. But I think we can both agree it is time for that pointless hatred to stop." Janos paused, considering the statement. Up until recently he would never have accepted such a thing, considering the Hylden as the sole origin of all threats to the world. Kain had shown him otherwise and he was felt feeling a little unsure of what to believe.

But one thing he knew for certain that there had already been far too much hate spread around already.

"My patience had been exhausted, witch." Kain reminded her, quickening his pace through the tunnel so he was nearly by her side. "What is Midguard and why are we being called there?"

"Midguard is the name of a secluded valley beyond the mountains." She replied without looking back at him, a toss of her head throwing her head almost back into his face. "It is through these tunnels that the Seroli seers journeyed before emerging into it. And it is not there we are being summoned to; it is the temple at its centre. The very place where the gospels that foretold the true role of the Scion of Balance were scribed." A smile slowly spread over her lips. "And where I first received my instructions?"

"Instructions?" Kain asked.

"I was sent back to Nosgoth from Midguard with the instruction to find and aid the Scion of Balance to his true destiny, and to help him return my own people to sanity. I was waiting for you when we first met." She paused to look back at him over her shoulder. "I did not recognise you to begin with but eventually I saw what you were beyond the impatient vampire."

"Then what was the wolf that spoke to us all?" Vorador asked; his arms around Umah's shoulders as he helped her to walk. Despite only having recently regained consciousness she insisted on trying to exercise herself by doing some of her own walking.

"My instructor." The seer replied. "He is the one who wishes to pass on his knowledge but can only do so when we are all gathered at the temple." Her face adopted a far off expression as her thoughts drifted. "He said I was worthy, but I had not believed him; at least not until now." The tunnels twisted and turned and eventually they passed out of what was known to the miners, beyond the light of the lanterns and into the darkness of the underground.

Realizing that the humans in their group could not see as well in the dark as the vampires or those who became wolves every full moon, Vorador held up one hand calling the beginnings of a fire ball between his talons. The soft orange glow illuminated the tunnel ahead a short distance.

"Thank you." The seer began. "Did you bring the Lupine Gospels?"

"I have them on me." Vorador replied tapping his chest and the inside coat pocket where he had laid the parchments. "For some strange reason I felt as if I would need them." The seer nodded once with a grim smile.

"You will."

She continued to lead them, utterly sure of her way as they descended deeper into the darkness; their way lit only by Vorador's grace. The tunnels interwove like a labyrinth beneath the eastern mountain range, a natural maze that only part of which had been used for the mines. As if she had walked this route a thousand times, she led them on.

As they walked, Ewoden noticed that on the walls were depictions. Scrawled cave paintings. Images of a war with fighting the likes of which appalled him; men with wings fighting against creatures with near insect like qualities to them, the two races clashing against each other with religious fervour.

This was the ancient war that nearly destroyed both the Vampires and the Hylden. Ewoden found himself amazed how such a terrible conflict could simply fade from human history when so much of evidence lay scattered around?

Suddenly the Seer stopped and then turned to face the tunnel ceiling above her.

"Ah yes…" She breathed. Vorador raised his claw higher and the darkness above was expelled, revealing that directly above the Hylden herself was an etched piece of stone. It was clearly purposely placed, as it was far too smoothly cut and engraved with runes to be natural. Directly in the centre was a round, circular object that blocked the way to some sort of entrance above. "I placed this seal here eons ago to prevent someone arriving at Midguard by chance." She explained. "But the time has come for it to be opened again." She raised an arm and aimed her open palm towards it. She whispered something in another language, her eyes narrowing at the seal above.

The runes lit up, their etched lines glowing bright white; before the seal uncoupled itself from the ceiling with a loud clunk. Slowly it descended, hovering for a moment in the air before drifting down to land softly on the ground beneath them.

There was a tunnel beyond, leading directly upwards to some unknown destination. Without a word the seer gestured to the seal on the floor. Its round shape was flat on top and large enough for them all to stand on.

Vorador climbed onto it first, helping the weakened Umah to do so as well. The others followed one by one. Kain was the last. He stood there staring at it in mute distrust, before eventually he relented and stepped up. Once all of them were stood upon the seal, the combined weight seemed to activate some sort of mechanism. Slowly, with them upon it, it rose up and quickly began to ascend towards the top of the shaft.

"This is not ancient vampire technology." Janos commented looking slightly puzzled.

"And neither is it Hylden." Vorador added. Between them, the two ancients were familiar with all forms of ancient technology in Nosgoth and the style of architecture used to create this was unique and foreign to them both.

"The people who created this form of transportation left this world eons mere decades after Vampires and the Hylden came into being." The seer replied without looking at them. "They were the first." She said nothing more after that and it seemed no one had the motivation to press the conversation any further.

Eventually, a point of light emerged far above them; a single dot of light in the darkness. Steady it grew and grew until finally; they left the long shaft and emerged up into a chamber.

It was a corridor, made completely out of stone and interlaced with metal. The style was similar to that of Hylden constructions but had far straighter edges. How this place was lit was not apparent but there was enough light in here for Vorador to cancel out his illumination. The Seer stepped off the seal and onto the floor.

Sally followed first, quickly followed by Ewoden and William; the Princess stepping off accompanied by her two knights.

"What is this place?" Kain asked glancing around at the unfamiliar architecture that stretched down the corridor until it reached a large metal door. It was a clear surface with a single seem directly down the middle.

"Merely the threshold." The seer replied walking off. "Now come." She lead them to the door and lightly laid her hand upon it. As if it had been struck by the arms of giants it crashed open, but without so much a creaking of its hinges in terms of noise. The corridors carried on, an interlaced network of them that was much a maze as the catacombs they had just left behind. The floor beneath their feet were uncomfortably cold and the walls seemingly devoid of anything decorative. What sort of beings, Ewoden found himself wondering, would choose to build such a sterile environment?

"Sire… what is this race she speaks of?" Vorador asked. Ewoden cocked his head slightly to listen in on the conversation.

"I am not certain." Janos replied. "But the folklore of our people tell of an overall creator, those who spawned all races; Vampire, human and Hylden alike. We accepted this to be our Oracle and Elder." The ancient furrowed his brow. "But now I wonder; could it be the people who built this unique place and the Elder was simply taking the credit?"

Eventually, the Seer's leadership showed them to another door. This she opened in much the manner as the previous and stepped inside.

"What manner of spawn from hell…" Kain began at the sight beyond. Before them was a room that Ewoden could only described as an alchemist's nightmare. The place was white, almost completely snow white with grey mesh floors and an arched dome ceiling. All around the walls were dozens of tall glass jars just larger than a man, all hooked up together by thick metallic limbs that looked like mechanized snakes. Some of the glass jars were broken and through the holes, they observed piled fragments of ancient bones.

A stone slab, clearly serving as a table, stood directly in the centre of the room. It was covered in a thick layer of dust, but that did little to hide the metallic instruments laid upon it. They were foreign in origin to them, but they were clearly surgical tools of a sort. Beside these tools were the skeletal remains of an ancient vampire. The bones laid out after being counted, sorted and documented. The smell of death in this place was overpowering. So much so that Ewoden had to stagger backwards as the scent hit his werewolf enhanced senses. Beside the former knight, Obelisk shuddered as he detected it as well. This was ancient death he was smelling, but even after so long it had remained as if it were a bound spectre. Sally wrapped her fingers around Ewoden's hand and refused to let go.

"Come, do not linger." The seer urged them, crossing the room towards the door on the far side. They were all too happy to oblige. Not a single one of them would like to lurk in such a forbidding place.

The corridors beyond continued for a short distance, before finally they came to an abrupt stop with another chamber. This one was different from the first as it was completely barren. The only thing of interest, at least in appearance was the door.

"We were all created here; or at least conceived, weren't we?" William asked, stating the question that had been dogging most of the minds in the group. "This is the birthplace of the races." The seer was silent with her back to him, before nodding once.

"Midguard is the place of destiny for all Nosgoth." She laid both her hands against the door as if leaning into it. "Here, let me show you my sanctuary." The door flew opened and fresh air rushed out to meet them, wafting away the stench of death. A torrent of snow fell in, flooding around their feet and up to their knees.

Beyond was a ruined countryside. A wasteland of snow reaching as far as the eye could see. The thick blanket of white wrapped around ruined buildings that in their prime must have reached great heights, but now had all but disappeared under nature's relentless barrage. A forest of half dead pine trees stood before them, their blackening branched laden heavy with snow.

"We are beyond the mountain border of Nosgoth." Vorador stated as the Seer began forward. "From this point on, the land is unknown territory." With that he started after her; Umah in his stride.


	36. Chapter 36: Temple of Midguard

The Temple of Midguard

The walk through this strange and cold place revealed much as Ewoden looked. Clearly they were in the ruins of a city, long since abandoned and left to the assault of the elements. The snow blanketed much, but silhouetted against the night sky were the outlines of peaks that may once have been mighty palaces for whatever race built them.

Eventually they left the ruins and marched through the forest of snow ridden trees for a brief while, before they came across the faint outline of another building. The seer lead them right to it. As they neared, they made out the shape of a temple; a large structure half blanketed in snow and surrounded by the pine forest.

"Your majesty…" Fitzroy began. "I fear…I fear I can not enter." The princess looked back to see her two knights frozen to the spot, unable to take even a single step forward. Obelisk was in the same situation, unable to move even a muscle forward; as if some irrational fear had gripped him from the inside.

"The temple had been forbidden to all but the elected nine." The seer explained without looking back. "Those who do not bear the honour may not advance further."

"Then I will go alone from here." Alicia stated trying to look brave. "Rest here sir knights, I will enter without you."

The temple was a strange construction. A tall arching oval shaped building. It was a single chamber within the walls; the tall ceiling above had caved in allowing the fall of the snow inside. Two statues half buried in snow stood on either side of the top of the steps by the entrance. One was of a winged ancient, a warrior standing aloft holding a spear in his hands with his wings spread out either side. As Kain walked by it, he could not help but notice that the statue had a face that bore an uncanny resemblance to his own

The other was of a wolf like creature, but clad in armour and standing upright on its hind legs. A long tail swept out behind it, busy and painstakingly engraved to reveal the fur. Its hands were human like and each of them were holding the hilt of a battle axe. Ewoden was the only one to notice that those axes seemed remarkable similar to Havoc and Malice, the weapons he had with him at this very instant.

The temples interior had walls and ceiling engraved with a rune like scripture that appeared to be nosgothic blood script but drawn in a very unusual way, like the mad ravings of a lunatic. But these were not what drew Kain's immediate attention.

Directly in the centre was a large circular platform and directly in the centre of this was a collection of nine identical waist high stone pedestals, the tops just large enough to place a hand. They stood in a half circle and drawing close, Kain could see that on the top each had an engraved stone symbol. He recognised each and every one of them.

These symbols were the rune representations of the pillars. There was the symbol here for death, conflict, the mind and of course directly in the centre was that of Balance. This was a miniature reconstruction of the Pillars of Nosgoth.

"What now Seer?" Vorador asked as the Hylden female almost waltzed passed him, gazing out as she drank up the atmosphere. A deliriously happy smile on her face.

"Read Vorador." The seer began swiftly. "Read from the Gospels." Vorador glanced from her to his coat and back then. Then he reached inside and withdrew the Lupine Gospels.

"One wielding blood and soul shall rise and be one and not of time." He began reading aloud even before he unrolled it, the words almost known by heart now. "Eight companions shall he have and they shall be one and not of time. Overcome deception of time and guise of death shall he, Scion of world's hope. Lies and treachery shall he slice through with blade of first born soul."

Before anyone could say anything more, the air almost seemed to ripple as a long howl echoed across the sky. The cry of a wolf seemed to shake the floor beneath them. Vorador and Janos cast a glance in Ewoden's direction.

"Its not a full moon so don't look at me." The former Sarafan protested looking as confused as they were. Kain, feeling a presence; turned to look back at the pedestals and sitting there, staring directly at him was the wolf.

Its large sea blue eyes set in an unblinking stare.

"Welcome." It said without moving its lips. Everyone turned to face it, some with loud exclamations. "None of you can appreciate just how significant your arrival here at this place, here at this time. You are all people whose decisions and trials have altered this world's destiny and how your final trials begin." The beast straightened up, wagging its large bushy tail behind it. "I am the keeper, the being who was charged with the guardianship of this place until nine came to accept their roles."

"Accept their roles?" Kain asked sounding aggravated. "I don't 'accept' anything unless of my own free will. I've been lead around by ancient prophecies for centuries." The wolf endured his ranting in silence.

"Lead there, lead there; always with no end in sight. I refuse to let it continue." The wolf appeared undaunted by the threat. "Why must I be lead around like some child?"

"What are we all if not children?" It replied without moving its lips.

Tasks lie ahead; Scion of Balance and they are unavoidable. If you wish to know what they are in advance I suggest you maintain some dignity."

Kain managed a profound and intense frown.

"Then perhaps you be as courteous as to answer a question." The wolf inclined its head.

"You wish to know about the Time of Election I take it?"

"Yes, what just is that?" William asked. "I heard about it from the man called Swift."

"The Time of Election is an event that is soon to take place." The wolf explained. "The Pillars of Nosgoth sense two Guardians of Balance for them to choose from, one corrupt and one pure. Usually in such a situation the other guardians would simply decide on the better one for them, but as there **_aren't_** any other guardians this leaves the Pillars in a state of complete chaos. They are on the verge regenerating but lack the direction to accomplish it.

Instead, they are forced to elect a completely new circle; which takes time and energy which they do not have. They have been decaying for too long. Thus, they can not charge their tasks to mewling inexperienced newborns. So instead each pillar must elect a new guardian from the already living and are the most worthy."

"Is that why we are all here?" Kain asked. "We are the newly elected guardians?" Everyone glanced around at each other, as if unsure of what to make of all this." What looked like a smile spread over the wolf's black lips.

"Not yet." It replied. "You have competition for the roles. The Elder knows of this appointed time and seeks to cement his rule over humanity by assuring that they

become the race the pillars elect from.

To this end, he has trained his own nine which he intends to make his candidates against you. This will determine which race the Pillars summon for their guardians, humans, vampires, or all."

"So that is what that Druid meant." Kain whispered to himself looking thoughtful.

"If they succeed, this will spell the demise of your species." The wolf continued. "For the vampires to survive, you must prevent the humans from taking the positions as guardians at all costs."

"Lead me to their throats and I will end this tonight." The vampire lord replied baring his fangs.

"What I hear about you that always seems to be your answer to everything doesn't it vampire?" The wolf asked with an amused expression set in the furry features. "First however each of you have tasks that must be completed before the election. It is why I have called you here this day." Its head turned to gaze directly at Ewoden and the former knight looked a little uneasy under its gaze. Its eyes wandered across all those present as if counting them. Its blue eyes were almost piercing in their scrutiny of each and every one of them, Kain especially. "Come Nine elected, stand before the fountain of destiny." It began eventually. "Place your hand upon one of the icons and your tasks will be revealed to you."

A frown on his face Kain went first, striding up to the podium. Umah quickly followed despite her lack of stretch, Vorador following after her. Janos Audron went next. Ewoden paused to take a deep breath before he strode up with Sally in tow. William and Alicia were last and finally all nine of them were stood before the pedestals.

Each of them found themselves drawn unexplainably to one of the icons. Sally placed her hand on the Icon of the Mind and William did the same for that of Dimension. Vorador hesitated as if horribly unsure of himself, before he put his claws on the icon of Conflict. Unsure of what to expect, Ewoden tapped the icon of Nature with the end of his finger before placing his whole hand upon it when nothing happened.

Janos stared down at the icon representing Energy. This went against everything his own prophecies had told him and so he felt extremely uneasy. But what would he gain by refusing? He had misread signs before and completely missed what the true mission of the Scion of Balance was to be. The pull to the icon was almost irresistible and relenting, Janos placed his hand down upon it.

The Icon of Time beckoned and without hesitation the Seer gently laid her palm down. Being unused to this, Alicia looked extremely reluctant, then without a word she touched the Icon representing States.

Kain of course was left with the central icon, that of Balance. He still did not known if he could trust any of this but the pull to that icon was undeniable. If it was fate that drew him here and not the subtle manipulations of the Elder then so be it. Slowly at first he reached other and then with a sudden surge he almost grabbed the top of the pedestal.

The result was indescribable.

Outside the temple Obelisk, Fitzroy and Jessup watched in amazement as a pillar of light lanced from the roof of the temple and shot high into the air, vanishing into the gloom of the clouds but bathing the ground beneath it in light. The three of them were left standing there in mute awe.

Those in the temple were shown images, flashing through their heads as tremendous speed. They all saw Nosgoth, in the past and present. They saw the land nearly consumed during the Hylden and Vampire war, they saw the summoning of the Pillars themselves and they saw the curses befall both the Vampires and the Seroli; each becoming blood hungry monsters.

A twisting mass of tentacles, sprawling from the underworld continued to absorb souls from its engineered chaos; the wars it's played out like a puppeteer to provide it with sustenance.

Finally these images became unique to all of them as it then they were shown their tasks.

Janos and Vorador were shown the northern mountains of Nosgoth and raging in the bottle neck canyon between the plains and Dark Eden was a tremendous battle. Sarafan Knights and Vampire clans clashed together fighting for supremacy. The last stand of Kain's army against the Order. The message to the both of them was clear. The vampires must not loose.

Princess Alicia watched in horror as Willendorf was consumed by flames, spread by the hands of Sarafan inquisitors as they routed out those un-loyal to them, driving them out of their homes and forcing them out to into the streets. Anyone caught trying to resist were impaled and placed up for all to see to ensure their cooperation. The streets were a forest of these grotesque sights and the royal family's flag was burning atop the castle turrets.

"Not here." Alicia found herself muttered. No, she would fight to prevent that massacre. Her task was more than clear. She would free the Lion kingdom.

William saw over a million souls filled with anger, entrapped in a place that day by day ate away at what was left of their sanity. Their anger was more than justified, but if allowed to be unleashed it would not only destroy them but all before them. He watched as he reached forward and opened the door to that awful place and let them out.

Sally saw the same event and as those hate filled souls re-entered this world, she reached out and touched each of them in turn. As she did, their hate melted away and they gazed around in wonder as if they had just awoken from a nightmare.

The Seer came to her people as they awoke from madness and offered them her hand. They took it and no sooner had they done so then an army of men bent on their destruction marched out of the darkness banishing the banner of the Sarafan Order.

Umah, though still very weak and frail; was show the image of an old man, slumped on a throne. A mere puppet he did what he was told by his masters and through him great harm was done. To him she revealed the mistakes he had made in his life and the nature of the control he exercised on behalf of his masters.

The spirit of the wolf burned within the former knight as he saw the full moon in his vision. Ewoden could do nothing but watch as one by one the werewolves were ferreted out of the city of Willdendorf and then killed by Sarafan soldiers. Obelisk, the man who had taught him the nature of the werewolf curse fell with them, leaving a few strangling survivors fighting for their right to exist.

When they were on the verge of complete destruction Ewoden took up the mantle of leadership and lead the charge at their final stand. When all enemies were defeated, the Pillar of Nature stood there waiting for him.

For Kain, he found himself standing before the Balance Pillar. The world around him was lush and full of life, a cloudless aqua sky above him. The pillars were pure and uncorrupted stretching up into the unequalled heavens. The air was cold and crisp, but the feel of it against his skin was refreshing.

Waiting for him a blue skinned and raven winged ancient and for a brief moment Kain thought he was looking into a mirror when he looked into the ancients face, so much like himself. Even the eyes seemed to mirror his. Long white hair flowed out from the back of the ancients head, tied back into a ponytail by a golden ring. An almost exact copy of his own style.

"Who are you?" Kain demanded, reaching for the Soul Reaver but finding that the sword was missing from his back.

"I am one who made a terrible mistake." The ancient replied with a hint of emotion either on his face or in his voice. "For which you and the other eight currently bound here are paying the price. For that you have my dearest apologises and regrets." Kain said nothing but instead glanced up towards the pillars. Silhouetted the sun and the cloudless sky, the tops of the trees on the edge of the sight was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. But the fact it was only an illusion soured it to no end. "An inspiring sight without a doubt." The ancient carried on noticing where Kain's eyes were. "But their corruption now steams not from you but rather from their own conception. These pillars were created as a prison lock and a weapon, the maintaining of the land was simply a side benefit. How can a weapon and jailor be considered inspirational by anyone?"

"Enough riddles, just who are you?" Kain demanded taking a step forward violating the ancient's personal space.

"Like I said, a maker of mistakes. Many were made in the past, on both sides of the ridiculous conflict. This is why you were called; Scion of Balance. To correct those mistakes."

"Your mistakes? Why should I right your errors?" Kain asked contemptuously. A grim smile passed over the ancients face.

"Because if you do not, this will be the fate of Nosgoth." He gestured out either side with both his wings and arms and at once the world around them changed. The forests disappeared and dark clouds of pollution gathered overhead, pumped out from factories created by the humans. The pillars still stood white and pure, but all around Sarafan banners were placed in rows, the mutilated bodies of vampires, Seroli smiths and even Hylden were left hanging like lifeless puppets on pikes. A completely human guardian circle used this site to practise ritual sacrifice to their 'divine' master. The ground lay cracked with dried blood.

Soldiers marched over the face of Nosgoth and wherever they went they raped and pillaged the land, justifying murder and genocide as the will of god. Spurring them on, reaching up to fish the souls the Sarafan dispatched from their bodies were the long slimy tentacles of the Elder.

"The age that was once your empire has been re-written by the new events in the past and now it hangs in the balance. The template you created and then altered." The ancient continued as Kain stood there in horror. "Will it be the world of life and peace which you saw moments ago? Or will it become this abomination? The outcome will depend completely on who wins at the time of election. You will have to prove yourself more worthy than the Sarafan leader; the man called Sabre."

"Sabre?"

"He sees all this in his mind. He sees it with his waking eyes, and yearns for the day when it comes to pass. All of those under him do." The blue ancient lost his smile. "I was once just like them so I know how they think." It was then that Kain realized something.

"They don't think." He stated with widening eyes. "The Elder simply gives them orders and because they believe he's the divine source of all, they carry them out without even questioning it in their minds." His lips parted in a grin and he ended up chuckling to himself.

"Mindless puppets; that is what that 'god' demands; not worshippers." The ancient replied in agreement. "And our kind complied, even in death."

"Then tell me." Kain began. "Tell me how I kill it." The ancient shook his head sadly.

"I am not simply being pious when I tell you that that is not so easy a task." Kain looked unimpressed. "While not invulnerable to the effect of wounds, you would never be able to do enough damage across its body before it heals itself. He stretches from one corner of Nosgoth to the other."

"So there is too much of it to kill, is that what you are saying?" The ancient hesitated before he turned to face the Pillar of Balance behind him.

"We were conceived as the successors of a dying race. They journeyed here so that they might give birth to new life before their race passed on." As if they were illustrations in a book, Kain saw images of many strange vessels crossing the sea; slicing through the waves like knifes before they moved towards the southern shores of ancient Nosgoth. "They created the Hylden first and taught them much, giving to them advanced knowledge of the world and science even we can not hope to acclaim.

Then they created us. To our race they gave the capacity for mental powers such as telepathy and telekinesis, along with a life span unequalled by any other race.

Finally, the made the humans. Small and rodent like compared to both ourselves and the Hylden, but they were the best builders out of the three. They could live in places we could not, could adapt far better to hostile environments and were great improvisers.

It was not long before our parent race died out and their history faded, much in the same way our own has to the humans. Eventually our races parted and we began living by ourselves in the various regions of Nosgoth.

Unfortunately, our creators had not foreseen that this land was already inhabited by a creature of immense size. A pupating aquatic form of life that survives by drawing its sustenance from the energy released by the soul. Once the soul is drained dry, it releases it back into the material world to acquire more energy during its new life before being drained again."

"The wheel of fate." Kain began. "The cycle of birth, death and rebirth. It's nothing more than dining table of the Elder." He glanced down at his hands. "Every person I've ever killed, everyone I've ever dispatched regardless of who they were…. I've simply been feeding my enemy with them." The ancient nodded. "That is why he swells to such a size. The more souls he devours the larger he becomes."

"Tell me Scion of Balance, why do you believe the Elder fears the vampires so much?" Kain looked up. "Is it because our immortally prevents us from being part of his regular meals? If that was the case then why not simply allow us to be cured as you quest to do? Surely if we become mortal once more we will be fair game to him?" Kain paused. He had not considered why at all, but now that he thought about it; the motivations of the Elder did not make sense. At least from his perspective.

"He fears us because we are destined to end his hold on life and can only do that when free of the curse." The ancient continued. "It has all been written, prophesied eons before we even set foot upon this land. The Elder knows this, recognises the signs of his coming defeat and works tirelessly to destroy us before we can destroy him. By uttering his name."

"His name?"

"The title to which he originally belonged, not the simple 'Elder' we know. You will know it, when the time comes to fulfil the destiny of our people and do away with him."

Kain stood there pondering this. If this as so, it would explain so much. The coming age was the age of vampires, the age of Kain's empire. The alterations in the past may have changed it into something quite different, perhaps the age Kain had been dreaming about since he first gazed into Moebius' time streaming chambers.

Was that the world devoid of the presence and strangulating hold of the Elder?

"You haven't much time." The winged ancient warned him. "The Elder's chosen elite, his own elected nine, must not be allowed to win at the time of election. You must cure our people of the Hylden's affliction and prove to the Pillar of Balance that you are more worthy than the Sarafan leader. You will have a very short period of time to do this in."

"Then I should not dawdle." Kain replied. "Fare thee well apparition. You will not see me again until I am victorious."

"For the sake of both your soul and my own Kain, I hope very much so." The ancient replied and instantly the vampire found himself back at that snow covered temple; his hand held above the icon of balance. He felt the cold air around him and the fall of snow through the hole in the temple roof and slowly he pulled his arm back to his side.

"How interesting." Vorador began glancing down at his hand, before at the pedestal before him.

Kain simply stood there silently in mute agreement. If nothing else, it was indeed interesting.

"Each of you has been given a task which much be completed before the time of election." The wolf was sat waiting for them nearby, staring at them with its large blue eyes. "These tasks will not be easy to accomplish and many will try to stop you. It is imperative for the future of our world that you succeed." It stood up on all fours and padded its way towards the centre of the temple's chamber. "To that end, I wish you the best of luck on your endeavours'." As it past by, the beast and the Seer exchanged glances, before it broke into a run and leapt up high into the air; almost flying out the top of the broken roof and disappearing into the gloom above with a long howl that echoed across the sky before fading to nothing.

"How does one go about defeating the entire Sarafan army?" Janos Audron asked; his eyes still on the pedestal in front of him. Kain drew the Soul Reaver with a loud hiss, clasping the hilt in both hands as he stared into the eyes of the ivory hilt.

"One head at a time." He replied running his thumb along the curved blade.


	37. Chapter 37: Ewoden

Chapter 37: Ewoden

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Something was clearly happening. Sarafan branded ships had been moving in and out of the Willendorf harbour for the past two nights, unloading large crates before they set off again. Cabal spies watched the unloading from the shadows. Sarafan guards were having the crates transported back to the citadel at the heart of the city.

During the night there was an accident and one of the crates fell from the ship and crashed onto the dock, breaking open and its contents flying out for all to see. Humans remains, piles of bones that filed the entire container which was half the size of a man. Skulls and rib cages had been piled high and labelled for easy distribution.

Before any of the workers could see, the guards stuffed them back into a replacement crate and sealed it back up; kicking whatever evidence over the side into the waters below the docks.

This was reported at once to Ramak, the master smith currently heading the Seroli resistance in the city. While a good deal of human remains were known to be shipped OUT of the Sarafan's stronghold from time to time, never this large amount to be taken IN. This puzzled the smith a great deal; what could the order possibly want with so many bones and why make it so secret? It's not as if they were in the habit of concealing their brutality.

"For work in Druid devilry no doubt." He muttered to himself as he paced the corridors of their safe house, the estate of a nobleman loyal to their cause. Within the aristocratic district of Willdendorf it was right under the very nose of the Order. He ran his claws through the fur around his face. Lines of communication between themselves and what was happening in the north had been cut. For all he knew, the Sarafan army had already decimated the clans and were marching back home.

"Sir, a carriage has stopped outside the gate." One of his agents informed him and instantly he was at the window. A horse drawn carriage had indeed stopped at the gate marking the entrance to the estate, the animal crying out into the cold night. It had been driven hard and fast to get here at this hour.

At reigns was one of the two werewolves Ramak had lost track of for the last two days. Obelisk climbed down from the stop and opened the door. The other of their own they had been looking for, their newest Ewoden slipped out. He glanced around to check that the coast was clear before stepping outside.

With them was their strongest ally in the aristocracy, Princess Alicia Ottmar.

"We are running out of time." She proclaimed as soon as they safely inside and away from prying eyes, the heads of the resistance gathering for the meeting in the estate library. "If the battle in the north is won then their political power becomes absolute. We have to overthrow them here in the city now, before they had solidify their hold." Her statement met with blank stares from those assembled, including the master smith himself. "The Sarafan are murderous killers and if events remain unaltered, then they will incite a massacre in this city. No one will be spared their wrath. We have to bring them down before that can happen."

"How many groups around the city can we count on for support sir?" Obelisk asked looking towards Ramak.

"Not enough for a rebellion." The master smith replied shaking his head. "We need more time to incite the people to join us."

"Well we haven't any time left." Alicia stated. Ramak paused for a brief moment looking the princess over.

"Your majesty, may I be as bold as to ask where this sudden haste has come from? You have after all been aware of the situation for some time yet have been content before to wait for the opportune moment."

"I've just been shown some new things." She replied as calmly as she could. "I have seen what will happen if I do not go about my business with haste. We are out of time Master smith. We must act now." Ewoden sat nearby. He hadn't the mental fatigue to remove his armour and happily sat content in his furs and metallic clothing nearby, the Axes Havoc and Malice at his feet. He was still thinking about all that had happened and indeed was still happening.

The images put through his head at the temple in the ancient ruin of Midguard had showed him that Ramak was going to die. Not only that but his mentor in the true nature of the werewolf, Obelisk himself, was going to fall alongside the master smith. He hadn't warned him of what he saw as Ewoden could not be sure he could trust his own senses on the matter.

The former knight was not one to believe in pre-destined events. It was his philosophy that no event was inevitable. The very fact they were here fighting against impossible odds, planning for a fully fledged peasant revolt against a blood thirsty regime was proof enough of that. Perhaps those images he saw were only warnings of what 'could' happen, rather than what will.

Leaving Sally after so brief and distracted a reunion had been soul crushing, for the both of them. He could feel her disappointment and sadness wheeling up through the Whisper as they parted. Despite being a vampire, Sally's personality was very childlike and innocent. Playful, like a small kitten. Whatever magic's the Sarafan placed upon the city was preventing him from contacting her through the Whisper directly, but the few scraps of emotion that seeped through told him that she was both frightened and in awe of the events around her.

A disposition he shared.

He cast his memory back to Midguard, the ancient ruin they had been at a mere half day ago. Kain had already gone, dissolving before their eyes into a flock of bats after having a brief conversation with the Hylden seer before each of them flew away, vanishing into the snow. Clearly he had obtained what he had gone there to collect.

"He will want that canister very soon." She had whispered to Vorador, who had simply nodded with a grim smile.

"Come Vorador; let us return to the Cabal before the battle begins." Janos announced to the elder vampire, spreading his large black wings eagerly.

"Yes of course sire." He replied, offering Umah his hand. She nodded and took it, allowing him to help her up. Her strength had not yet fully returned and walking on her own was near impossible. "Sally, come." Sally had looked like she was about to obey, but froze on the spot.

"No sire." Vorador turned to look back over his shoulder. "My task is to aid the seer and William. I won't be going back with you." Vorador could simply order her to accompany him and being her creator she would have no choice in the matter. The convulsion to obey would be far too strong.

"I understand." He stated with kind, almost fatherly understanding in his eyes that seemed very out of place on his features. "Farewell then." As Janos, Umah and himself vanished into the midst of a translocation spell Ewoden had been sure he felt a silent message pass between the elder vampire and the fledgling, but that may just have been due to his own high state within the Whisper.

The vampire with wings, the one called William was sitting beside the entrance to the temple staring out into the gloom of Midguard. His wings were wrapped around his arms as if to keep himself warm.

Alicia Ottmar, the Princess of Willendorf stood beside him. She was trapped in a moment of indecision and it was clear on her face. She had courted before, but that had all been arranged by the machinations of politics. This was different enough to be worthy of remembrance.

Taking a deep breath she sat down beside him. William glanced to the side. She smiled at him and after a moment he smiled back.

Throughout all of this, it was easy to forget that the Princess; despite being a ruthless political leader was still barely out of her teens and prone to flushes of adolescent emotion.

"I'd be lying if I said I understood any of this." Ewoden had begun almost to himself as he sat near the pedestal at the centre of the temple staring up at the icon representing nature. "But still, if we're the only ones who can make this mad world sane again…"

"Then why us?" Sally added staring off into the gloom. Through the whisper the former knight could sense her anxiousness, the nervous disputation that so much responsibility burdened.

"Why not us?" The seer asked calmly. "Why anyone else? Why anything else? Why anything at all. That's the question." Sally looked up with a clear expression of confusion on her face. "Every item on this world, right down to the most insignificant pebble, has a mission and purpose to fulfil. It's reason for existing." The Hylden smiled grimly. "But people are different. If we choose and enacted enough will we could break the vicious cycle of the wheel of fate and choose our own paths."

"I don't understand." Sally replied.

"Existence can be anything we want it to be." The seer replied. "But we should not dwell on such philosophy at this time. We have tasks to accomplish." She glanced around those still here. "All of us." Ewoden sighed and stood up.

"Aye." He replied sadly. "I suppose the next time we all meet will be at the time of election." The seer nodded. "And when will that be?"

"We will be summoned at that moment, you will know the instant." Was her cryptic reply that had left the former knight plenty of food for thought.

"Sire Sarafan Knights!" Someone declared and instantly the master smith was at the window, peering through the curtains. There was activity in the street outside. The street lamps cast shadows over the armoured figured leaping the procession. Doors were being knocked upon and in some cases, broken open when they weren't opened fast enough. People were marched out and huddled together in groups while their homes were searched. Windows were smashed, furniture broken apart and carpets torn up. Anyone who protested were tossed back violently and told at the point of a sword to keep quiet.

"It's an inquisition sire." Someone else whispered. "The vampires just received word of random searches being conducted throughout the city." Several of the knights were approaching the door of their safe-house and as they passed underneath the streetlamp outside, Ewoden recognised their leader.

It was the Sarafan Knight Gaunt, the knight from the attempted execution the former knight had escaped from. He was clad in full armour with a long flowing red cape and his engraved rune sword strapped along his left arm. Even if only through the hole in the visor of his helmet, Ewoden could recognise the man. This knight had cause to hate Ewoden with a passion, as Ewoden had killed his brother defending Vorador's mansion from a surprise Sarafan attack.

"Those are sunlight knights." Obelisk hissed, pointing to the two armoured men at Gaunt's side. "They'll detect the vampires in our group."

"Downstairs, the escape tunnel inside the cellar, go!" Ramak directed and instantly the Seroli around them made for the door leading into the back of the house. "Your majesty, it would seem suspicious if you were found here at this time. Go with them and return as soon as possible to the Royal…" Without even bothering to knock, Gaunt raised his sword and sliced through the door. The frame shattered and the fragments of the door itself caved into the hall.

"We know you're in this district Werewolf Scum, show yourselves!" He declared striding into the house. By now the agents in the estate had made their way down into the cellar and were the process of opening a secret door that lead into an underground passage. "Search the house." Gaunt announced to the Sarafan soldiers marching in after him. "Tear it apart if you have to. Just find them!" They saluted and several of them made their way towards the stairs while opened began kicking the doors to various other rooms open.

"We will speak of this further." Alicia told the Master-Smith, before vanishing out the back door of the library with the last of the Seroli agents. Obelisk and Ewoden had braced the door as best they could, but it would not hold for long with several Sarafan knights on the far side.

"I will attend to them." Ramak announced. He clenched his fists at either side and the fur lining his arms and face began to recede back into the skin, pulling itself back through until it had vanished entirely; leaving a human face in its place as the snout pushed itself back into a nose and the ears began rounded. With the fur gone, his true face was observed. Despite being as old as Vorador himself, he appeared only into his late twenties. The only blemish on his face was a single scar running across his forehead and then down towards his right ear.

"Now go, your faces are known to them." He jabbed a finger at the far door the Princess had just used. Obelisk nodded and did as he was told. Ewoden paused for a brief moment. He could hear Gaunt's heavy armoured footsteps just outside. He nodded as well before moving to the door.

A trap door leading into the cellar was already open waiting for him in the kitchen just beyond, Obelisk quickly disappearing down into it. Ewoden took a step towards it, when suddenly he heard the muttered beginnings of a fire ball spell.

The barricade they had placed around the door flew inwards as the door combusted. Sarafan soldiers rushed into the room and two at a time, surrounded Ramak and drew their swords. Gaunt entered next, smoke still rising from his gauntlet.

"What is the meaning of this intrusion?" Ramak demanded, changing his voice a little so he spoke with an aristocratic tone. "I thought I was being raided by bandits and thugs so I locked the door. What is going on here?"

"We are hunting an unholy alliance." Gaunt replied, removing his helmet; his eyes set hard against the Master-Smith. Ewoden watched through a crack in the door. They were too preoccupied with Ramak at the moment to be bothered with the other exit. "If so much as one of them is found here, you will face the full wrath of the righteous Sarafan law."

"I am a law abiding citizen." The Master-Smith said calmly. "I do not associate with enemies of the state."

"That had best be true for your sake." Gaunt replied. At that moment one of the soldiers came into the room after the others and saluted to the knight.

"We found evidence that a large number of people were here recently sir." He handed Gaunt a bottle. Ewoden nearly gagged when he recognised it. It was the bottle of strong alcohol that Ral had given him to help with his stomach. Gaunt uncorked it and sniffed the contents. He glanced up towards Ramak from the bottle rim.

"What is this?" He demanded holding the bottle out in front of himself.

"I had a social gathering of nobles the other night." The Master-Smith began. "I imagine it's the punch that was served. One of them must have bottled some and then left it here." Gaunt gently sipped some of the liquid and blinked as it worked over his tongue.

"You really don't expect me to believe that pathetic excuse for a cover story do you?" He asked. "I know there's a Werewolf cabal affiliation in this district and I know they are using nobles who had fallen from God's grace to hide themselves."

"Believe me good sir; I am not one of them." Gaunt turned away, but paused briefly when he sighted something he hadn't noticed before. He stopped and looked up towards the Master-Smith with discerning eyes.

"Tell me then…. How did you get that scar?" He pointed to only blemish on Ramak's forehead. The Master Smith hesitated. "My departed brother once told me that he during the era of the Sarafan Lord's rule he was ordered to track down a beast and slay it. He tracked it for over a weak until finally they meet in a clearing north of the Terragent forest." Ewoden watched as sudden horror crept over Ramak's face. "He and the wolf fought for over an hour before finally they dealt each other mortal wounds. My brother received a gash across his chest, while the wolf…" He raised his massive sword and pointed the tip directly at the mark. "..Received a cut that happens to be in that exact position."

"You…you're the brother of…" Ramak began taking two steps back.

"Men, restrain this creature!" The soldiers grabbed the master smiths arms and legs and forced him to kneel before the night. Ramak struggled back trying to free himself but a brief blow to the back of the back sent him cascading to the floor. "You may have escaped my brother, demon, but you will not escape me." Gaunt stated with sadistic gleams in his eyes as he ran the thumb of his gauntlet along the edge of his blade. The sword was raised high into the air and Ewoden watched out of sight as the blade he had seen kill Ramak in his vision was readied to strike.

-


	38. Chapter 38: Kain

Chapter 37: Kain

* * *

---

When Nupraptor's mental poison seeped out and infected the circle, its members reacted in different ways. Some simply went insane, while others used their madness to further their own pursuits as they were now freed from any morals they might have once possessed.

Dark Eden was the result of the culmination of three guardians. Bane the Druid gave his control over nature; DeJoule the energist gave her ability to manipulate the flow of power and Anarcrothe the alchemist gave his sordid power of depraved alchemy.

The combined efforts of these maddened three Guardians gave rise to Dark Eden. A twisted tower stood at the heart of an active volcanic region. From the spire of this tower, their dome spread out across the land. Mutated anything caught within to a horrific parody of its former self.

With those guardians dead, their magic's ceased the flow and the dome had long since dissipated. But the land all around the ruins of Dark Eden was still barren and warped.

An ironically fitting place for my former self to take up residence.

The Vampire clans of Nosgoth, pushed to the bring by the advance of the Sarafan had retreated down the bottleneck canyon that lead to the ruins of Dark Eden and had made their final stand there. The only way in or out of the valley was fortified by the order and their ten thousand strong army was preparing itself for war. It would not be long before they attacked.

I reasoned I had arrived only just in time.

It was here that the Hylden Seer promised me lay the Blood Fountain I sought, an altered fountain. Dabbled with by the alchemist to remove the vulnerability to water from any vampire who drinks from it.

"We have but her word it is here." Raziel told me as his projected form manifested close by. "And little to no way of knowing if it even does what she says or if it even exists at all."

"Of those facts I am most painful aware." I replied. I had no reason to trust the seer, or even her own kind as they had done their fair share of manipulation through the events in Nosgoth's history. Despite my mistrust however my sympathy went out to them. "Come, we have a night's work ahead of us." Vampires belonging to Turel's clan, the Turelim, were regularly patrolling the grounds outside the ruins tower. Each clan it seemed had been appointed a task.

The Dumahim were the frontline foot soldiers and were fortifying the bottleneck canyon for the inevitable Sarafan attack. The Ruhabim were their archers, hiding themselves inside the cracks in the canyon walls with their bows at the ready. The Zephonim were also archers and assisted the Ruhabim to that end. The Melchiahim, being the weakest of the clans, were drawn back to the tower itself and protected it as the last line of defence. Strongly I saw no sign of Raziel's clan, the Razielim. Perhaps they lay within, acting as their generals' elite bodyguards?

On the edge the fortified area; I paused to admire my creation once more. To look at them now, one would not expect that in a thousand years they would become the monsters that haunted my empire

The clans were my vision, a vampire nation where our kind did not have to live in constant fear of human vampire hunters. Somewhere along the way I became more concerned with expansion and the power it promised than with my original dream. Perhaps that had been the effect Nupraptor's poison had had on me, or maybe it was simply the corruption of power. Either way, the clans before me; the promise of a return to the ancient vampire world would be warped into something unrecognizable.

"Beneath Dark Eden, lies a sealed chamber. Inside you will find the Leviathan Blood Fountain." The words of the seer echoed through my mind. "The door to this chamber the alchemist sealed so that none would disturb his unfinished project. Be prepared to experience pain if you wish to succeed."

Fading into the form of mist, I silently moved through the ranks of the Turelim towards the tower. None of them noticed the faint trace of fog around them, briefly sliding by before it carried on.

Strangely I found the doors leading into the tower unguarded. At least it appeared unguarded, but that did not mean to say dozens of vampires lay in the shadows waiting for an intruder to pounce on it.

Holding the Reaver tight in both hands, I called upon the elemental power of darkness distilled there in and cloaked myself in a shroud that rendered me invisible to the naked eye. Sliding through the corridors, I found them patrolled by more Turelim. They had not yet evolved the features that would make each clan distinctive, but I was able to tell them apart by the clan symbol on their armour and uniforms. The vampires within wore the mark of Turel.

From memories of my original visit here some thousand or so years ago; I retraced my steps through the twisting red stone corridors of the tower. I had found the three guardians in the upper chambers and no doubt that was where I would discover my younger self. I did not go that way, but instead sought a way further down.

"This is most disheartening." A voice from around a corner began as footsteps began to near. I clung to the wall as two vampires emerged from a nearby corridor entrance. One of them had short spiky black hair and extremely well defined cheekbones. I didn't need to see the clan banner hanging from his right shoulder to identify him. He was Zephon, one of my six…and now seven; vampire sons.

Beside him, I watched in mute amazement, was one I never thought to lay eyes on again. He was a medium sized vampire in terms of height, but with handsome qualities in his features that made up for it. Long black hair tied into a ponytail behind his head, the crop on top in a middle parting running down either side of the head and face.

The clan banner hanging from his shoulder pad identified this vampire as the eldest of my sons, the one called Raziel. "Our lord foretold great glory and conquest, yet here we are cornered like rats by the Order."

"You put too much importance on winning Zephon." The younger Raziel replied giving his companion a sideways glance. "I am far more concerned over the fate of our species. Winning battles can only do so much for our survival."

"You have no guts." Zephon muttered in return.

"Perhaps if I show you yours, you might rethink that remark." The vampire I had cast into the abyss, in what seemed like another life time, started angrily. I slipped past them, but found my gaze following them until they rounded another corner and disappeared.

The encounter had left me unnerved but still I carried on.

"After all this time…" Raziel's voice, the Raziel still encased in the blade, announced to be telepathically. "I had almost forgotten what my face looked like."

"It is not often that a man sees his own corpse, it is a sobering experience." I replied, quoting the words Malek had once used against me.

Finally I found that a wall in the side of one of the corridors had a strange ambience about it. I could feel a light breeze coming through the cracks, showing there was enough space for a gust to move about beyond.

He ran my hand across it and discovered that the mortar had been poorly applied and was no twisted like so much of this place. This was a false wall. I was amazed it had actually remained unnoticed by the vampires now occupying this ruin. Clearly their thoughts were elsewhere to have missed it.

I dissolved into mist form and seeped through the tiny cracks, flowing through the barrier until I reached the far side. Reforming, I found that just beyond was a flight of stairs heading down for quite a distance into the earth.

They continued quite a distance before levelling off into a short corridor that ran northwards underground. It was dark here; far too dark for normal eyes to see; but my eyes pierced the veil like knife blades.

At the far end was a large metallic, oval shaped door. I studied it briefly and judged that it was made of a material beyond my strength to break and was placed into its frame far too well to be simply removed. Along the right hand side of the door were engraved Nosgothic blood script letters. It stated simply: 'The Blood of Ages Flows so Sweet.'

There were no other markings or distinctive objects to be found upon this barrier so these words had to be significant in opening it.

I doubted it was this simple, but just to satisfy my curiosity; I removed my gauntlet and cut open the skin on my hand. I smeared the few drops of blood over the engraved words and stood back. I did not expect it to work, but I found to my surprise that the blood script words glowing bright red for a moment before with a soft groaning, the door began to swing inwards.

"The alchemist is not one for designing wards, if this was the best he could do." I muttered to myself, walking inwards. It was only then I discovered that the alchemist 'had' been far cleverer than that.

The chamber beyond was full of the one thing hazardous to all vampires.

Water.

I was standing upon a stone catwalk, several meters before a moat of running water that flowed from a series of waterfalls in the centre of the room and out the bottom through a large drain. The waterfalls in the centre of the room fell from fonts in the high ceiling above and formed a circle around a raised stone pedestal to which the catwalk extended. The bridge itself ended halfway and from there, I could see that the fountain I sought lay beyond that deadly curtain. It stood there directly in the centre of the stone platform, surrounded by metal shelves with complex alchemic equipment stacked upon it. The substances they contained were long since gone and they were covered in dust, the metal shelves upon which they were placed rusting in the presence of so much water.

"Damned alchemist." He muttered. Anacrothe had made sure his experiment would never be disturbed with this ingenious setting. The door would only own in the presence of vampire blood, ensuring a human would never arrive at this point; and that the abundance of water would deter any of my kind.

Presumably, the alchemist had had some other means of crossing this divide but I would not see what it was. I was left with only one option.

"Kain, what are you doing?" Raziel asked me, his projected form fading into existence behind me as I judged the distance between the end of the stone catwalk and the suspended platform.

"I can jump this." I replied, taking one last look at the water below. If I fell into that I was a dead man.

"Even if you make it, you'll be going through those waterfalls." He didn't need to remind me. I was already well aware of that. "You'll be reduced to bones within moments." My sight however was on the blood fountain. One drink from it and I would be one step closer to accomplishing my goal. I would not be deterred by something as simple as water now.

"That is a risk I am going to have to take!" Before he could utter one more word in argument, I bent into a crouch before propelling myself across the void. Time seemed to slow down at that point as I knew no matter what happened I would be passing through water and I readied myself mentally for the onslaught.

As I expected, I was able to leap the distance; but in doing so I flew through the curtain of water.

The mere touch of it burnt like acid, my skin peeling back under its presence. I crashed to the floor, breaking some of the alchemist's equipment in the process. The waterfalls around me were spitting water and it was showering me with a constant barrage. Unable to bear the pain I cried out, my back arching in response. I could feel my flesh disappearing bit by bit under the searing unrelenting torrent.

Glaring up, I saw the blood fountain before me half concealed by Anarcrothe's equipment. A wide square basin with a stone spire in the centre sat directly in the middle of the platform. Four golden skulls branched out at the summit with their mouths pried open, a thick stream of red following out. It ran down the cracks in the stone pillar before filling the basin below. The outline laced with decorative runes and stone skulls adorning horns.

I had no way of knowing that the fountain would do what the Seer claimed. If she had lied, then she had sealed my fate.

Standing up as best I could, I stumbled towards the fountain knocking the glass pipes and holders out of the way. Collapsing at the side of the basin, I felt my strength leave me. The water was burning the muscle off my bones now. I had little time.

As if I had been starved of sustenance for centuries, I sank my head into head into that sweet blood and drank.

The salt and copper followed down my throat like a torrent and I lost my awareness in the hunger. All I knew was the feeding, drinking and drinking that sweet liquid.

When my self control returned, I found myself lying on my side at the side of the basin. I could feel my flesh and skin returned to me as if they had never been scolded. The hunger and the burning sensation were gone, but the feeling of water against my skin had not followed. Sitting up sharply, I realized I was soaked. My hair and clan banner were matted and clung to my back. The waterfalls around were still showering me but not one of them was hurting anymore.

I ran my talons through my hair and confirmed it. It was water, but its touch was no longer burning me at its touch.

Suddenly overcome with undeniable mirth, I rolled my head back and started laughing. I didn't even know why, I just knew I couldn't stop.

"Seer, you have my eternal thanks." I declared, slowly pulling myself up.

With a loud groaning sound, the skulls at the top of the fountain closed their mouths and the flow of blood ceased. Slowly all four of them turned to glare directly at me.

"Congratulations little vampire." One of them uttered, blood leaking from behind its teeth as it spoke.

"It has been eons since we satisfied the hunger of your kind." Another added.

"And never after the alchemist began his profane meddling." The third put in.

"The Blood Fountains were created by the ancients to satisfy their hunger as they could not stomach hunting live prey." The fourth and final skull announced. "Overtime however, the ten of us were forgotten and abandoned as the generations of vampires past." The second finished for it.

"Had you come before the alchemist, you would not have survived the leap." The first pointed out glaring down at me with empty sockets.

"But his alterations have saved you, for our gift to you is the removal of an aspect of the ancient curse bestowed upon your race." The fourth added.

"Water is no longer permitted to do you harm." All four of them said at once. "For our blood enhances." With that they remained silent and still. The blood in the basin churned as if under the influence of intense heat and turned jet black.

Testing it, I thrust my arm through the waterfall closest to me. Nothing happened.

My arm remained whole and unharmed as the water flowed of it. The feeling of it sliding over my skin was strange. It had been over a century since I had felt it during my human life and the now unfamiliar touch caused me to shudder involuntarily.

"Perhaps you are satisfied now?" Raziel's voice asked irritably.

"Beyond belief." I replied with a wide grin that refused to leave my face. "Now, we have business elsewhere."

"Where to now?" He asked.

"Malek's Bastion." I replied, walking through the waterfall and standing on the edge, letting it wash over me; relishing in the feeling. "I left something in Vorador's care I need to pick up."


	39. Chapter 39: Ewoden

Chapter 38: Ewoden

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Before the blade could strike Ramak, Ewoden's Havoc axe acted as a shield and sent it cascading backwards. Gaunt turned in alarm, just in time to see the blade of another axe could arching toward him. With a sickening crunch, Malice sunk into the armour around his shoulder and bit the flesh within. He cried out staggering back in pain.

Using the momentary confusion to his advantage, Ewoden tore his axe from the startled knight and arched it back at the nearest Sarafan solider holding the Master-Smith down.

The curved blade smashed through armour and cleaved the man's entire torso in half in a spray of blood. The body fell back against the floor convulsing. With his arm freed, Ramak grabbed one of the Sarafan and twisted the limb back until it broke displaying his enhanced strength.

The unmistakable hiss of swords being drawn reached Ewoden's ears and reacting instinctively, he about faced and tossed Havoc through the air. The axe smashed into one of the Sarafan and sent him flying back through a window and out into the street outside.

"You!" Gaunt snarled; his eyes set on Ewoden. "I have prayed for this moment ever since you revealed what sort of devil you are!" The former knight turned with both axes in his hand to face him. Gaunt brandished his sword towards him threateningly with a fire of malice burning on his face. "This is for my brother!" He swung his blade down and Ewoden blocked it with Havoc, before swinging Malice around in a circle trying to strike him. Gaunt dodged it and while spinning, raised his right hand. A fire ball burned for a moment between his fingers before the spell completed itself and the attack flew at the former knight.

Ewoden caught it full in the face and was sent cascading backwards long the floor until he slammed into the bookcase, a collection of literature falling out and half burying him.

"Your brother was trying to kill me." Ewoden replied as he picked himself back up. "I was simply defending myself."

"Do not try to pass off your evil as self defence, demon." Gaunt snarled turning to face him with his sword left aloft. "The lord god has opened my eyes and allows me to see through the torrent of lies that stream from your mouth."

"I harboured no malice against your brother and I harbour none against you." Ewoden continued regardless. "It is you who is the aggressor, not me."

"Cease thy heretical babbling!" Gaunt declared, firing another spell at Ewoden. This one sent bolts of blue lightning coursing through the air. The former knight ducked and the struck the books behind him. The pages burst into flames and quickly spread. "I will not let you profane my brother's martyred sprit with your black lies!" He raced forward with his sword drawn high. Ewoden arched his hands together with the words of a spell already all his limps. His palms flew forward and a shockwave passed through the air, the full burnt of it sending Gaunt flying out the only unbroken window in a spray of glass.

"We must flee this place." Ramak announced as confused shouts began outside. Gaunt had landed onto of a platoon of soldiers and was already getting back up, howling in anger. Ewoden scoped up his axes before pushing one of the bookcases over the door blocking it. It was not slow them down for less than an instant, but that may be all they required.

The fire was spreading across the wall and the curtains had already been set ablaze, the flames spreading up towards the ceiling. The two of them bolts out of the burning library and into the kitchens. They could already hear Sarafan soldiers racing into the manor by the score. Ramak almost flew down the trapdoor into the cellar with Ewoden close behind. The entrance to the secret escape route lay open for them, a false wall concealing the tunnel.

The master-smith went first and Ewoden back him up; replacing the concealment as soon as they were through.

"We can not risk them following us." Ramak announced and held out his hand, muttering the arcane language of the ancients as he uttered a spell. The ground beneath their feet vibrated angrily for a spilt second and the stone and motor began to collapse, burying the entrance to the tunnel in rubble. "Come, that may not hold them for long."

The tunnel was long and winding and judging by the distance, Ewoden guessed that they had travelled across town. Finally, they came to a junction where a large copper pipe wide enough for a man to stand up inside jutted out into the tunnel. The escape route was part of Willendorf's sewer system.

Ramak lead them down the pipe, wading through the knee high water and into near total darkness. Eventually they came across a hole in the pipe and they descended through that.

Waiting for them on a stone platform above an underground stream was Obelisk.

"Sire, what happened?" He asked as the two of them descended a rope ladder to join him.

"I was recognised." The master-smith relented with a sigh. "If it were not for Ewoden's timely intervention, my head would be a pike right now." He glanced past him towards the doorway leading further into the sewers. "Where are the others?"

"We have decided to regroup at the warehouses along the western docks." Obelisk replied. "The Princess is being escorted by her personal guard back to the keep."

"Good, then this evening has not been a total loss." Ramak said with relief. "Quickly, show me to the meeting place. I have to see what effect the current inquisition had and reorganise our groups for the coming assault." He turned to face Ewoden. "Are you injured?" Apart from the sting of the fire ball spell, Ewoden had sustained no injury in the brief clash. "Good. Then if you're up to it, I have a special assignment for you."

"For me?" Ewoden asked sounding a little surprised.

"Strange shipments of bones and other human remains were brought in through the docks last night, at pier 56." The Master-Smith continued. "They were taken by the keep under heavy guard. I suspect them to be used in some sort of ritual and I doubt it will be friendly to our cause.

I want you to find out what this entails exactly. Sabotage their efforts if you can or must, but it is imperative we know what they're plotting so once you have finished your observation you can find us at the docks." The former knight nodded.

"I understand."

"You saved my life this night Ewoden." The Master-Smith added quickly. "I would prefer for you not to die, and the Sarafan will be there by the score. Avoid being seen..." With that, both he and Obelisk disappeared inside the doorway and vanished into the darkness.

Ewoden released the pent up sigh of relief he had been holding. He had just prevented one of the events his vision showed him would happen. Perhaps he had been correct in speculating that those events were not events that 'would' happen, but rather what 'might'.

Still, the image of Ramak falling did not leave his mind and lingered like a vengeful phantom. Had he averted that event or just postponed it?

From this point the sewers were remarkably easy to traverse and before too long he arrived back at the surface. Pushing the cover aside, he climbed up into a secluded alleyway. His arrival had been concealed behind some large stacked crates so anyone gazing in would not have seen him.

Peering out, he saw a stones throw from the market places that crowded around the bridge that ran from the mainland to the fortified island keep. Being so late and night, the only ones out on the streets were those without homes and the guards.

The docks in question were not far away, but they were within spitting distance of the fortified bridge. The Sarafan would be near omnipresent in those docks. The streets were far too dangerous so instead Ewoden took to the rooftops, using the canopy of tiles to cross unseen above as he neared the water's edge. The towering fortresses placed at either end of the bridge were viable through the mist that clung to the encircling river. The docks were nearby, a collection of ships and fraters still waiting at the piers while cranes removed their cargo. From the shadow of a tall chimney, the former knight watched carefully.

His face still stung from the fireball spell Gaunt had hurled at him. He ran his hand across his chin but the stinging continued.

"Did you hear, they found a Cabal hideout in the noble's district. Tonight as well." Ewoden leant over the side of the roof to see two guards standing beneath. They were apparently acting as watchmen for the crates being unloaded from the nearby ship.

"They did? But I didn't see anything about it in the official dispatches." One of them replied.

"You're not likely to, they all got away. Escaped down some escape passage into the sewers. They lost the trail, even with magic. I heard it all from Kirsk when he came off duty."

"Good lord, that'd be embarrassing."

"You bet, I heard their leader; Gaunt I think his name was, killed one of his own soldiers 'cause he was so angry." The other guard gave a disapproving sigh and shuffled his feet. "You hungry, 'cause I am."

"I could go for something." The other replied. "Here, why don't we go off duty a little early and get ourselves something?"

"The officer off the watch will have our heads for leaving these crates unguarded."

"Oh he'll never know. Look, how about 'I' go off and get some food for the both of us while 'you' stay here and watch the crates."

"Fine, but if we're done for it you're the one taking the fall." They began chattering about what they wanted and Ewoden made a move to get away. Unfortunately his foot dislodged a piece of loose stone and it fell off the roof and crashed to the ground.

"What the hell…" One of the guards began glancing up as the pile of broken fragments nearby. Ewoden held his breath and leaned back into the shadows.

"Just a piece of loose mortar, you're gettin' paranoid in your old age." The other said, writing the incident off as an accident.

The guard glanced along the rooftops, before sheathing his sword and turning away. Ewoden, as silently as possible slide down the side of the building's drainpipe and darted behind a crate behind he could be spotted. Using the series of crates as cover, he darted long the docks until he came to where the piers began.

There was numbered and the nearest was pier 40. Ramak had said… pier 56.Reading along the signs, the former knights spotted the one he was looking for. He was in luck, there was still a ship anchored at pier 56. All the crates had just been unloaded and the crew appeared to be preparing the vessel to get underway again.

"What's in these crates anywho?" One of the sailors at the bottom of the gangplank asked the first mate.

"Don't know and don't care. The gold's good enough so we don't ask questions." He replied gruffly. "The convoy'll be here to pick it soon enough." Creeping through the crates, Ewoden listened intently to every word.

Were these the shipments of human remains Ramak had spoken of? He sniffed the box beside him and the unmistaken scent of death came wafting out. His scene of smell, enhanced by the werewolf curse, told him he was standing in an open grave.

Just to confirm it, he pulled aside one of the wooden panels on the nearest crate and peered inside. The leering scowl of a skull met his eyes, marked on the forehead with blood script letters.

The clatter of horse's hooves broke the silence and Ewoden glanced up to see the banner of the order fluttering from the top of a collection of merchant carriages.

"This 'ere's the last shipment." The first man began to someone. "Sign…" his words were cut off by the sound of a sword being drawn. There was a sudden gasp followed by a loud wrenching as steal sliced through flesh. Ewoden knew the sound well enough.

He risked a glance around the side of the crate and watched as the last of the crew were dropped over the side of the dock and into the waters by armour clad knights. They were being silenced. The order wanted these bones for something and didn't want anyone to know they'd so much as taken the shipment.

"Get these loaded and quickly." Someone directed and the sound of feet wrapped in chain-mail began to draw nearer. Ewoden ducked back as a glyph knight began to move around the edge of the crate. As he neared, the former knight drew his axe up and tensed his muscle.

When Havoc came crashing down, it sank into his chest plate and directly into the heart; silencing the man before he could cry out. Knowing what he had to do, Ewoden removed the knight's helmet, shoulder pads and boots. He took off his own leather wrappings and placed the boots on. They were a size too big but it might go unnoticed. The shoulder pads went next followed by the helm. The cape he quickly detached and hung around himself.

Quickly he dragged the body over to the water and let it drop gently down out of sight.

With his disguise in place, no one noticed him as he aided the Sarafan in placing the crates on the wagons. Once the task was accomplished the convoy prepared to leave. The knights climbed in and Ewoden followed them. They were all half asleep at this time of the night and didn't even notice that one of their number had lining furs underneath his armour.


	40. Chapter 40: Kain

Chapter 39: Kain

It was more than exhilarating, the feel of water against my skin. It was intoxicated, almost rivalling the frenzy the blood lust could install upon one of my kind. I could not resist taking each and every opportunity I could to dive in through whatever lakes were left. The cool feeling was both familiar and disturbing alien.

The feel brought back memories I thought I had lost forever. Memories of when I was still human and able to come into direct contact with water without burning. I remembered I detested washing, regarding it as a common practise hardly befitting a noble of my stature. I learned later I should have relished the experience while I could.

Now I found no juvenile revolution in water's touch. Now, it was the most precious thing in the world to have.

I took the unique opportunity to wash. I had, after all, gone for over a thousand years without so much as a rinse. My hair was dirty and I had no doubt I may even smell. Swimming was not something I had ever learned to do well so I stayed in the swallows of the lake, the waves gently lapping around my waist. Shaking the water clear from my hair I glanced down at my reflection in the water's surface.

A curios impulse suddenly gripped me and reaching down; I cupped the water in my hands and raised it to my lips. I sipped it slowly and let it swirl around in my mouth. It felt as if I was sampling some rare wine and I relished it, before letting it slid down the back of my throat.

I found it surprising I had forgotten what the taste of water was like. It was wholly different to the copper and salty taste of blood and it sat uneasy in a stomach that was unused to it. It would do me little good as my body required blood rather that water. But still, it had been my first drink other than blood since I had been turned over a millennium ago.

For a while, I simply floated on the water's surface and let it carry me back to shore where I had left my clan banner and gauntlets. I kept expecting to wake up to find this all a delusion of a warped mind.

Raziel, or rather his projected form, was sitting on the pebbles waiting for me.

"If you feel satisfied, we do have business elsewhere." He stated as I came to a stop against the stones. "As you yourself have said." I forged a frown, reminded of why I had sought out the Leviathan blood in the first place. I sat up and shook the last few drops of water off me.

"Yes of course." I replied standing up. It was an unusual experience, being wet and it took a little getting used to. Still my clothed required drying so I evoked a fireball spell and let it quietly burn around me. Within moments they were usable and I slipped my clan banner back over my shoulder.

Even from the shore, I could see the unique outline of Malek's Bastion in the distance. Perched on perilous mountain top, the fortress had been the unassailable home of Malek the paladin. Here he whiled away his existence with his soul bound to the armour he used in life as his punishment for failing the circle.

Dissolving into bats, I let them carry me across the distance. Sliding over the canopy's of dead or dying forests until finally I came to the foothills of the mountain itself. The battlements of the bastion stronghold towered an incredible distance above. This place, so devoid of life, offered nothing but pain and starvation for a vampire. But it was here none the less that Vorador and his sect of the Cabal had retreated after his mansion had been attacked by the Sarafan.

I saw now a brief glimpse into Vorador's mind and saw his rationality. The ancient vampire was able to elude his enemies by choosing hiding holes in the last places one might expect to find him, in places hostile to his kind.

His residence in the swamp offered him acidic pain, while his Cabal headquarters in Meridian had been in constant danger of being discovered by the Sarafan. Finally, this vacant stronghold was perched upon the very roof of Nosgoth and I knew from experience was not a place a vampire would feel comfortable in.

My bats reformed on the battlements and not surprisingly I found the courtyards empty. The sun was about to rise and the fledglings under Vorador's command were sheltering inside. From here, I could see the front lines the Sarafan order had erected in front of the bottleneck canyon leading towards Dark Eden. Vorador apparently had not just chosen this location for its unlikelihood of protection.

Kicking the main door open I proceeded inside. The stone corridors were lit with torchlight and the signs of recent habitation were everywhere. The smell of both vampires and humans were everyone, but not a single ounce of fear. Whatever humans were here operated in cooperation with the Cabal completely under their own free will.

"Come Kain, I am waiting for you." I heard Vorador's voice announce to me through the Whisper. I sensed he lay in one of the upper rooms and rather than wasting my time searching for him, I sought out his presence and used a translocation spell to come to him.

Sliding away from my first location, I seemed to arrive almost instantaneously inside a small dry stone room. It had a simple table and chair acting as a desk with a tall candle stick burning in a brass holder for light. A collection of books and scrolls were staked up against it. Vorador himself sat at the seat, his eyes already upon me as I emerged out of the spell.

"I have come for what I left with you." I stated simply, burning with far too much anticipation to get into in depth conversation. Vorador simply smiled grimly and pulled against some of the papers on his desk, revealing the brass canister I had left with him for safe keeping. Through the glass window I could see the pure white liquid that was the Hylden's vampire cure.

"Unless you have found a way of entering water without burning this will still be quite useless to you." He remarked callously picking it up in one hand to admire it, before I snatched it away from him.

"What makes you assume I have not?" I asked giving him a short smile. Vorador's own grin faded a little.

"Events are moving beyond my control now." He began, apparently disinterested with whatever I had accomplished while out of his sight. My smile widened as he spoke, wondering if he maintain such an attitude if he knew what benefit I had recently claimed. "The Order is making moves to start their attack. Their siege weapons are almost complete and their forces are becoming more mobilized." While he spoke I realized something.

"That's your task isn't it?" I asked. "You've been given the burden of preventing the destruction of the clans."

"**_YOUR_** clans." He added with an angry hint in his eyes. "It would be most helpful if you took some responsibility for them."

"I already am." I guestured off towards the north, implying that technically I had never left them. My past self was still commanding the clans even as we spoke. Vorador apparently did not share my good humour, which I suspect had been due to me newly acclaimed advantage.

"It is not '_just'_ my task." He continued. "Janos was burdened with it as well, but I fear even our combined efforts are not enough."

"Just where is Janos?" I asked ignoring his words. I could sense the old vampire within the Bastion and the masking presence of so many vampires and humans would do little to conceal him.

"He has taken this last opportunity to scout the Sarafan army to observe them before the battle." Vorador replied leaning back in his chair. "He left just before you arrived." He blinked remembering something. "Also, I have made progress in discovering the origin of the Order's new sunlight magic's." He offered me a piece of paper on the desk. Upon it were arcane runes and nosgothic blood script. They were instructions for various spells and the like and they made little sense to me. "This is an expert from a book I found here in the Bastion." He went on to explain. "This is a mages Arcanum for various spells involving soul magic. Given what Malek had become, I found it rather odd he would choose to have such reading material within his last stronghold.

It states that armour, properly enchanted, can absorb a soul and use its power for various magic traits."

"You believe this to be the method which they use to create that armour?" The sunlight knights that the Order had recently used to decimate the clans and other vampire groups could wield sunlight almost like a weapon. I discovered during my duel with their new leader Sabre, that they did this by use of enchanted armour.

"Perhaps in the same way that Malek's soul was bound to his armour, they may be binding other souls to armour to give them their deadly qualities." The expression across his face was that of uneasy frustration. "However I am not sure how they do this, or how to get around it. The light that armour generates can burn even evolved vampires to ashes." Someone cleared their throat and instantly a very familiar presence made itself known to me.

Turning slowly, I looked back to see Umah standing in the doorway that lead to the outside corridor. I shuddered involuntarily at the sight of her standing there in her shoulder armour, stockings and long gloves. Her appearance was so much like her from the days she had re-trained me in the depths of Meridian that for a brief moment at least I was unable to move.

She looked me directly in the eyes. That was the moment I relived that terrible decision I made to strike her across the throat, spilling what I thought had been her last few drops of life out across the ground.

The look on her face, the pleading glare in her eyes; those had been engrained upon my memories by the fires of hell. That one event finally made me question my reasons for conquest and slowly but surely, as my empire rose and then decayed, I realized I had been wrong. Without a word I placed the canister down on the desk.

"Sire, may I be permitted to speak to Kain alone?" She asked without taking her eyes off me. Vorador glanced from Umah, to me and back again.

"You needn't ask child." He said rising from his chair and striding past her towards the door. It was more than evident from the smile on his face that he was going to ease drop in some fashion. He closed the door behind him and left the two of us alone.

Silence endured. I certainly was not going to start this conversation.

"So Kain, am I permitted to exist now?" She asked suddenly adopting a short grin. I forged a frown in response. "After all, I stand here before you; now perhaps we can exchange words."

"And which would you like?" I asked almost contemptuously, narrowing an eye at her. "An apology perhaps?"

"Don't be patronizing." She snapped angrily, then without warning stepped forward to violate my personal space. She reached up and gently traced the outline of my chin with the back of her hand, moving softly down until she reached my lips. "I can sense the change not just in you but in all of Nosgoth." Her tone was ominous. "Now is the time for new beginnings, where old prejudices and angers can be left behind for us all to begin anew." She leaned closer to a point she as was almost directly up against me, her eyes staring heavily into mine. "I am prepared to forgive you Kain. Why are you not prepared to forgive me?"

"Is that what you think?" I asked pushing her back a little. "That I still hold you in contempt for taking the Nexus stone from me?" She looked a little confused. Clearly those had been her thoughts. "Oh Umah, it is not you I blame." I told her putting my hands on her shoulders. "I find it much easier to forgive others than it is to forgive oneself." Her eyes refused to turn away. "This path I take, it is not to further my abandoned ambitions or even for my own vanity. I do this so that I might be given some forgiveness and attain redemption."

"In whose eyes?" She asked trying to regain some composure.

"My own." She slumped her shoulders at my words and sighed.

"I want to…" I heard her eventually mutter. "But neither of us can return to how it was before we betrayed both each other and ourselves. But do we have to meet with scorn for a mistake we both made?"

"You didn't make the mistake Umah." I told her softly. "You were right not to trust me. That was a sane decision that now I applaud. I am the one in the wrong."

"If I had taken the Nexus Stone from you then it would never have happened." She added weakly.

"And what then?" I asked her. "You were right. I would have destroyed the Cabal to solidify my own hold on Nosgoth and wouldn't have given it any second thought." Without even thinking about it I gently put my hand against her cheek. "I want to thank you."

"For what?"

"For betraying me." Her face adopted a very confused expression. "If you hadn't, I might never have questioned my pointless pursuit of power." Umah put her hand against mine and held it close to her.

"So, does this mean you have discovered what 'faith' means?" She asked.

"I suspect faith can mean many things." I replied, but then gently lifting my hand away. "But I suspect I have not yet been permitted to even use the word never mind understand its ultimate meaning." Umah looked disappointed.

"And since when have you allowed anyone to simply 'permit' you something?" She asked. "Whose blessing and forgiveness are you hoping to gain?"

"First and foremost, my own." I looked away towards the window just beyond Vorador's desk. The northern mountains formed a silhouette on the horizon. "And then perhaps that of Nosgoth itself."

Rudely and without warning, Vorador thrust the door open nearly hitting me in the back with it.

"Believe me I hate to interrupt." He began and I saw Umah grimace slightly. "But Janos has just returned and his news is dire." He didn't need to continue. Through the window I watched as a steady tide of men began to march from the Sarafan front lines, formed into disciplined ranks, they slowly made their way towards the canyon entrance to Dark Eden.

"The battle has begun." I stated. "Then I must waste no time. I will open this canister and release the cure to our brethren before they can be slaughtered."

"I doubt, even if you accomplish your task, you will be that fast." Vorador stated. I was forced to admit he was right. The ancient Hylden city lay just west of Steinchencröe, which itself was a considerable distance away. Even travelling using my bat form I would never make it there before the conclusion of the battle.

I was left with only one option.

"That being the case…" I began, slowly drawing the Soul Reaver, letting the blade hiss and I raised it up. "I believe that I am required to shed some blood."

"As am I." Umah added.


	41. Chapter 41: Ewoden

Chapter 41: Ewoden

* * *

As expected, the convoy went directly across the bridge into the heavily armoured central island and the royal keep of Willendorf. As soon as they across, the bridge was closed and the wagons ushered towards the huge loading doors for the keep itself. The crates and large boxes were quickly unloaded by the knights and moves were made by workers to transport them through the large doors and into the keep itself. While in his disguise, Ewoden found that in order to keep character he had to assist the knights in the unloading process.

Once the opportunity arose, he slipped away unnoticed. He kept his disguise, reasoning that it would afford him better access to the keep. His assignment was to discover what the Order was doing with all those bones and he had every intention of doing that.

The workers loaded the large crates onto a conveyer belt and they were brought in through many entrances. Ewoden slipped in through a side one. Any workers who save him simply bowed low with respect and let him pass. They were not as foolish as to question anyone who wore Sarafan armour.

Once itself the crates, the crates and boxes were finally opened. Ewoden simply stared from afar at how many bones and skulls they had obtained. The whole skeletons of hundreds of people had to be here. Just where had they acquired them all?

The answer to that was simple and he found himself feeling foolish for even asking himself the question. He had seen the Sarafan murder vampires and those who did not support their cause en masse. Sure enough, he saw skulls with fangs amongst those without. These were the corpses of the orders political victims.

"Transport the skulls and thighbones up to the circle chamber at once." A Sarafan mage in white robes appeared to be in charge, directing the workers who were currently unloading the requested bones from the crates. "Leave the rib cages for later; the Doll maker will only need those for later spells." In the shadow, Ewoden pulled off his stolen Sarafan helmet as the visor was hindering his view of the unloading.

"Doll Maker?" He asked himself quietly. Why would the order possibly need a simple creator of toys? He surveyed them quietly, before placing his helmet back on.

The defences of the keep were made to prevent vampires and humans from entering. As the order had only recently started considering Werewolves a threat it had not probably updates their defences accordingly yet. Testing his enhanced senses such as sight, hearing and scent; Ewoden found that his abilities in stealth had been greatly improved. He could creep around unnoticed when it became necessary, but most of the time his disguise was enough for him to pass through the stone corridors without interference.

The former knight mingled into the guard escort for the workers with the bones and let them simply lead him through the keep. While here, he took the opportunity to observe as much as he could about. Most of the rooms were stocked full of weapons such as pikes, spears, swords and axes. Armour was stacked up on shelves and passing one chamber, he saw several Soldiers being trained in hand to hand combat. Others were practising their marksman with bows and crossbows against straw targets and dummy scarecrows. Clearly they were preparing for sort of combat.

Ascending up many flights of stairs, the workers were escorted to one of the high towers and to a chamber completely removed from windows. A large, thick wooden door with four knight guards outside it was pushed open to allow them entry.

Inside was a circular room with an arched floor and ceiling, torches stood out from the walls at regular intervals. It was barren, apart from the construction at the centre. Ewoden simply stared at it in disbelief. A ring was made from the bones, a curved circle directly in the centre of the room on the floor. All of the remains interlocked towards and had been placed in their locations purposely. Drawn in dark chalk around it was the image of a snake devouring its own tail. An oroborus.

"Please my lord Sabre, I beg you." A voice whispered pathetically as the workers they were escorting began to lay their own shipment of bones near the mages who were working on the bone construction. Glancing off, Ewoden saw two men standing at the far side of the strange ring. One was clad in golden Sarafan armour that strangely engraved with icons Ewoden did not recognise. He seemed old as Ewoden himself but was considerably taller. His hair was blonde and flowing down his shoulders and his eyes were muddy brown but almost seemed to glow. A sword was slid into a scabbard by his waist.

The other was a short, balding man with receding bright orange hair. His skin was pasty and almost grey in colour. A series dark of rings under his eyes showed either lack of sleep or intense stress and worry. "I go down on my knees, please don't make me do it." The smaller man dent down to his knees and looked quite a pathetic sight. His clothes were little more than rags on his wiry frame.

"Elzevir, show some dignity." The taller man, Saber- Ewoden deduced- sighed, apparently finding the smaller mans display pitiful. "Need I remind you '**_again'_**, that you are alive simply because the master choose you to be worthy of resurrection. Displease him and he can take away for new life in an instant." Saber turned to give Elzevir a glare. He raise a hand and called forth the beginnings of a fire ball spell between his fingers, the orange light casting savage shadows across his face. "Of course, I can do the same right here and now; unless you simply get on with the ritual you were called to perform." Frantic now, Elzevir persisted.

"It is necromantic magic my lord. Such spells can only be wielded by Guardians themselves."

"One of which you shall become if you do well." Sabre replied dismissing the spell. "You needn't cower like that Doll maker, we are your friends not your enemies. You would not have been summoned back to the land of the living if you were incapable of casting the spell." Sabre glanced back as two knights approached, each of them carrying a red velvet pillow. Upon which lay polished armour. It appeared to be Sarafan in style, but…while it was not standard Sarafan issue he felt as if he had laid eyes on it before.

If he were to hazard a guess, he would say it was custom made. "You are experienced in magic of the soul. Think of this as nothing more than a challenge of your skills." The taller man stated, before he gestured out towards the centre of the room. The knights bowed their heads and carefully stepped over the ring of bones, careful not to disturb a single one. Gently they laid the pillows with the armor down in the centre and retraced their careful steps.

It was already clear Elzevir had no choice in the matter and his last attempts to plead had been ignored. More knights and many ordinary Sarafan guards began to march in through the door, the sound of their armoured footsteps resonating across the chamber. They quickly formed themselves into a circle and knelt facing the ring of bones just as it was completed. The skulls all faced outwards and the thigh bones had been used as the main bulk. Ewoden, fearing his disguise might be voided, knelt along with them and watched as Saber shoved Elzevir towards the side of the ring.

"This is your only chance to prove your worthiness, Doll maker. Fail; and you return to the underworld. I needn't tell you what that will mean for you." Elzevir shuddered as some unknown memory passed through his mind. Shaking in fear, he slowly reached forward and touched the side of the ring. The knights all seemed to hold their breath in anticipation.

The dwarf of a man looked as if he had been dealt a savage blow across the chest as he convulsed, the outline of his hands glowing a soft violet. Instantly the eye-sockets of the skulls lining the outside of the ring began glowing one after the other, that same soft colour. The interior of the ring began to pulsate, as if hot air were passing through it distorting the image.

Ewoden recognized the tingle in the air that gave away the presence of powerful magic, but the spell itself was not one he was familiar with.

Slowly and surrounded by a faint glow, the armour that had been placed in the centre rose up and the former knight watched as it moved to fit together as if there was a person inside. The chain mail inflated, spreading out to accommodate imaginary muscle and the plated amour folded over it perfectly.

Without warning the purple glow changed to become a very dark greenish blue, the glow itself twisting around the suit of armour like a twister. Elzevir contorted and vomited onto the floor before collapsing.

Ewoden attention was not on him, but rather on whatever creation they had made that now stood in the centre of the ring. The bones had all collapsed to dust that lay on piles on the floor.

The suit of armour stood there silently, before he examined its hands as if it hadn't expected to ever see them again. Suddenly, it cried out. The cry resonating with anguish and pain.

"Why!" It demanded as it collapsed to its knees. "Not the armour again! I beg of you, set me free!" Sabre calmly approached and stood before the creature.

"Sire, please; maintain some dignity in front of your men." He whispered. The suit looked up to see the knights bowed low before it. It didn't notice Ewoden amongst them, watching with wide eyes and an astonished look on his face.

He knew now where he had seen that armour before. It had received a few new attachments, but it was undoubtedly the same attire. "You have been called back to lead us victory once more my lord."

"I don't care about victories or glory anymore." The armour protested angrily. Ewoden knelt there thunderstruck. Even the voice coming from it sounded the same as he remembered…but despite that the former knight failed to see how it was possible. "I spent centuries in a cold, metal shell and now you condemn me to it once more? Destroy this cold prison and let me go free!"

"Why return to the spirit realm when you can remain here and enjoy the many pleasures of the flesh?" Saber asked, drawing the sword from his scabbard. "Once our enemies lie broken and defeated before us, your human body will be restored to you. Thus is the reward promised to you by the most high." The armour looked up at the man. "Now rise again…" Saber offered the blade, hilt first towards it. "Lord Malek."


	42. Boss 4: Election part 1

The Citadel of the Apostles was one of the few places that had remained completely undisturbed by the march of human civilisation. It stood in the middle of the lake of tears, hidden by near constant fog that obscured the stronghold from view. Tales of monsters and curses kept the superstitious local fishermen from venturing any closer to it.

It was here that the original guardian circle had gathered together and summoned the pillars, watching from their perch as the nine locks lanced from the ground to pierce the sky above. Satisfaction filling their souls as they watched as one by one the Hylden were torn from the land and sucked through the gate they had fashioned in the ground where Avernus Cathedral now stood.

Over the eons that followed the citadel, which had served as the vampire's capitol for centuries, was reduced to rubble choked by vines and other creeper planets; its lower most chambers water logged, flooded or buried under tones of fallen rock and stone.

Sally had learnt much about the ancient vampire civilisation from Vorador and later Janos himself. Even so they had not prepared her for the sight of this place, even in its ruined state.

"Sometimes, I try to imagine what it was like…" She found herself muttering out load as she stared up at the peeks that towers above; still defying the elements and the sky after all this time. "All those vampires, living here amongst humans…." Sally paused and pressed her lips together, feeling her fangs prick at the flesh. "Not having to hunt them."

William was sitting nearby, his long dark wings spread out either side of him clumsily as he hadn't quite perfected their use just yet. He had his back to both Sally and the Seer who had brought them here. He simply stared out silently across the waters towards the shore which, thanks to vampiric heightened sight, Sally could just see through the mist.

"I often wonder what it was like before the wars that tore our peoples apart ever started." The Seer commented as she gazed up at the various murals, noting those of worth that had not been obliterated by the passage of time. "And before the Elder began to twist the truth to suit his own needs." Sally hesitated as if she wanted to ask something but was unsure of how to ask.

"I keep hearing about this 'Elder'." The fledgling started after a moment. "I have not heard about him before." The seer managed an ironic smile.

"Oh yes you have." She replied. "Just he does not go by the name… **_Elder_**…. At least not anymore." The Hylden looked back at Sally over her shoulder. "The humans call him god. The ancient vampires made the same mistake.

My people called him; _akavirah_ _halod_."

"And what does that mean?"

"'_Divine Liar'_." Sally regarded the seer with new eyes and as if sensing it, the fledgling noted that the Hylden was wearing a mask.

This mask was that of the detached Seer they had come to know; a woman who pursued her own goals whilst remaining unfazed and neutral to the carnage of blood and death around her.

Sally was given the impression that, in reality, the Seer was a very lonely person. An isolated soul; frightened and confused; the anxiety growing more acute the longer she wore the mask. Not only that, but she was embittered and angry.

Sally shook her head, realizing she had been using her Dark Gift again without realizing it. Vorador had told her that until she learned how to control it properly, she should avoid its use in practical situations and not try to look inside people's mind and hearts. The Seer however did not seem to notice.

"Attempting this will not be easy." The Hylden woman admitted. "Even with the pillars weakened as they are, opening a rift will be most taxing.

Out of all my people, only the General himself; the Sarafan Lord as he is known, had the power to do it. With him gone, their only hope for salvation lies with us."

William sighed and slumped his shoulders, knowing full well his part to play in this. He was still very confused by all of this. Many puzzles awaited completion inside his mind and as of yet he hadn't the pieces to finish them.

Still, this matter begged to be resolved first. Questions such as whom he had been before being raised and how he could use magic without being taught it, not to mention many more queries, would have to wait until later.

"How many Hylden are there?" Sally asked.

"At our height we numbered well into the tens of thousands." The seer replied but then her expression dimmed to a melancholy far off gaze. "Many perished in the thousand year war and only the survivors were cast into that place of demons. They numbered less than five thousand."

"Is that all?" Sally asked looking surprised. From the stories and folklore she had read and been taught by Vorador and Janos, she had expected a larger number than that.

Eventually they found their way through the half collapsed maze and before the central tower itself, a towering spire that stood directly in the centre of the walled city. Like everything around it, the structure had suffered at the hands of time and parts of it had fallen away and lay crumbled outside.

"The legendary apex." The seer muttered at the sight of it. "The place where the very concept of the Pillars was first conceived." The massive door leading into a flight of stairs that lead up towards the top was partially obscured by a metallic grate, suffering badly from rust. So much so that a single kick was enough to send it falling into piles of dark red powder.

Navigating the structure proved a small challenge as many corridors and stair wells had been blocked by fallen ancient rubble. Eventually however they reached the summit.

Waiting for them was a round chamber, the roof long since caved in and the far wall collapsed. Sitting in a half circle facing them were nine stone chairs, each of them withered by exposure to the elements but retaining enough of their shape to reveal what they were.

Engraved on the floor before each of the chairs was the symbol to represent which of the guardians it was meant for; the same as that on the pillars themselves.

"From here?" Sally asked and the Seer nodded once.

"This is where it happened." She replied, stepping forward to stand directly into the centre of the room. "This is the control point, where Baal first stood when he opened the gate between Nosgoth and that fiery place." She glanced out through the giant hole in the wall towards the north east, undoubtedly glaring past the horizon to the ancient sight upon which the gate had been constructed.

"So… how do we start?" William asked trudging forward turning his head this way and that to inspect the chamber.

"You don't." A feminine voice replied from behind him and a wave of surfing heat passed through the chamber before a fireball spell smashed its destructive fury into William's back between his wings, sending him crashing forward onto the floor. Sally about faced just in time to be picked up by a telekinetic grip that held her like a vice grip and tossed her up against the ceiling before dropping to the ground like a rag doll.

The seer sidestepped to avoid the large blade of a curved Sarafan battle axe. Lashing out at the owner she forced the hand to drop the weapon but then she was caught off guard by an intense blast of compressed magic that struck her head on and sent her flying straight into one of the stone chairs.

"These are the representatives for nature, dimension and time?" Another voice asked as Sally hoisted herself up to her knees. "Truly pathetic." Waiting by the entrance were three humans. One of them was a man with silver Sarafan armour, wrapped in a long flowing black hood and cloak. He had a thin black moustache and a triangular beard, a pony tail resting on his left shoulder.

There was a woman as well. Tall with long flowing brown hair, tied back behind her by a silver braid. Her green dress was long and flowing, tied around her waist by a brown leather belt. The eyes were a piercing gold and locked directly onto the seer.

The third was a man clad in iron armour with chain mail underneath it. He had short blonde hair and a scar running down his left cheek.

"Swift." William began, staring at the man in the black cloak; two smiled back at him sadistically.

"The master told us to expect you here." The blond haired man stated, lowering his hand which had cast the spells. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you all." His gaze moved to William. "The fabled boy king himself, what an honour."

"He's my kill Archon, don't forget that." The smaller man replied sharply.

"But of course." Archon sighed. "I wouldn't dream of denying you your fun. Lord Sabre, as an experienced hunter himself, would not approve of it." His eyes set themselves onto Sally. "This here is my quarry."

"I take it you are our challengers for the time of election?" The Seer asked, hoisting herself back up to her feet.

"I am Archon, the master's representative for the Pillar of the mind." He replied and gestured to the woman to his left. "This is Anubis, fair lady of the Willendorf royal court and our candidate for the Pillar of Time."

"Charmed." The woman added, fixing the seer with a glare.

"The master's plans are coming to fruition." Archon carried on. "The original heretics beyond the seal of the pillars are to stay where they are. They are not to be admitted back to this world by order of the most high."

"I will not allow my people to suffer any more then they already have!" The seer snapped in reply, her in-different mask slipping away. "I will free them!"

"Your people are dead to the world." Swift snapped. "And that is where they will remain!" Without waiting for the other two he darted forward towards the Seer by William dived into him and the two of them were sent rolling across the floor and perilously close to the tittering oblivion of the hole in the wall.

"Impatient as ever." Archon sighed as the two of them exchanged blows. "Well I suppose we should best get this messy business over with." He turned to face Sally. "The Hylden's all yours Anubis, have fun." The smirk on the woman's face widened dramatically, showing that every one of her teeth was sharp as that of a vampires.

"Oh I will." She replied, before crossing her arms in an 'x' in front of herself. Instantly her gloves tore in two, revealing that concealed within them were two curved scimitar blades. The hilt of each she grasped between her fingers, before running forward towards the seer with the cry of demented mad woman.

William swung a fist up and it connected with Swift's chin, forcing him backwards and back onto his feet. Using the momentary advantage as best he could, William back flipped to his feet and somersaulted upwards and landed a kick directly on the Sarafan's chest plate.

Growling angrily, Swift spread his arms outside and the darkness of his cloak seemed to spread out from him; becoming dozens of creature made out of the shadows themselves; each of them with a triad of glowing violet eyes in the centre of their heads.

Acting on instinct, William drew two arcane runes in the air two fingers and summoned forth magical light as the shadow creature arched around him like a school of piranha. Several of them were engulfed by the light and vanished within it. The others shrank back to a safe distance before attacking again in unison, trying to break through the defence.

Still being inexperienced with magic and unable to maintain such spells for long, William was forced to fade the light and about face, firing a hastily prepared fire ball spell.

It passed right through the shade doing it no harm. The creature hissed its laughter before advancing to strike the fledging across the chest with its claws. The flesh tore and blood sprayed out, forcing William back against the gaping hole.

The wound, while not a fatal for a vampire, had felt him dazed.

"Elemental magic won't do you any good against my servant's filthy vampire!" Swift Stated with a sneer, drawing both of his sword blades from his block in one fluid motion. "You die here! The Pillar of Dimension is mine!" He charged forward and swiped down with both swords attempting to severe William's head from his body.

Despite the pain in his chest, William grabbed upwards and latched onto Swift's sleeves as the Sarafan reached him and preventing the strike from occurring

"Is that was this is about?" William demanded, fighting back against the strike with all his strength. His heals passing just over the edge. "God's got nothing to do with it, has he! All you want are the Pillars!" The vampire lashed out with his foot at the last second, striking the Sarafan along the side of his waist and forcing him backwards. "For a short while I almost believed you, that the vampire life was a purgatory.

Now… I'm comfortable with this existence. Because compared to you selfish people, my own being isn't nearly as bad!" He lunged forward, throwing Swift against the floor and struck him repeatedly across the back with a succession of punches. "I'm no saint of your order!" The shades advanced to help their master, several of them grabbing William's wings and trying to pull him back.

This woman was not human, that was obvious from the start. No human was this fast, nor so demented; even in madness. Anubis' attacks were lightning fast and so agile they defied explanation.

Unable to dodge attacks that fast, the only option left to the Seer was to back off and attack from a distance with magic. A lightning bolt spell culminated between her fingers before shooting across the distance between them. Anubis' constant sneer widened and she held one of her blades up into the air. It acted as a lightning rod, attracting the energy into the scimitar rather than at her.

When she swung the sword down sharply and the attack flew right back to its owner, striking her with all the force it originally had. Electricity burnt through the seer's body and she screamed out load. Then she collapsed to the ground; smoke rising from her singed hair.

Seeing her opportunity for a quick finish, Anubis darted in with a blade already held at the ready. At the last second however, the seer uttered a spell that compressed the air around her and then expanded it rapidly. The shockwave produced hit Anubis full in the face.

She was ripped off the ground and hurled across the chamber to smash into the wall on the far side.

"Well, well, a little psychic." Archon began ad she approached Sally. "Then again, if you're a candidate for the Pillar of the Mind I suppose you'd have to be." Sally's throwing daggers arched across the distance between them, but stopped in mid air as they neared the man's face.

At that point they did a u-turn and slammed back into Sally, several of the blades sliding into her shoulders and leg. She cried out and collapsed to the floor, blood staining her clothes.

"Please, using weapons is so uncivilized." Archon said with a smile. "If we're going to have a proper battle at least make it a battle of the mind." Sally wrenched the daggers out of her thigh and cast them aside. If this man was an accomplished telekinetic they weren't going to do her much good.

From him she sensed no malevolence, only a keen conviction that he was doing what needed to be done. Unlike the others the Elder had recruited, this one had little to no interest in killing vampires.

"Ah, now that's better." Arcon added with a small smile, sensing the breach into his own mind. "Some skill after all, but that's not going to be enough." A psychic shockwave shot from his mind to hers and when it hit, her entire body went numb as her mind went dead. When her senses returned she found herself lying on the floor with Archon standing over her. "Come now, this is going to be far too easy if telepathy is all your mind is capable of."


	43. Boss 4: Election part 2

The march began and as the formed lines of Sarafan infantry moved forward the ground seemed to shake underfoot. Cavalry followed either side escort with archers bringing up the rear. The siege weaponry were being pulled by massive oxen far behind, protected by the glyph knights.

Leading the army were the dreaded Sunlight Knights themselves.

The clan archers were already in position along the narrow canyon walls and as soon as they the Sarafan were within firing range, a volley of arrows flew forward into their lines. Several soldiers were riddled with steal barbs and collapsed, only to be stepped over by those behind them.

"Mages, up front!" One of the knights ordered and dozens of men wrapped in white robes advanced to the front marching line. The army was approaching the canyon entrance by now and despite the rain of arrows they were not slowing down. "Fire at will!" A thin row of fire ball spells screamed through the air, incinerating several vampire archers even in their hiding places on the walls.

"Infantry, forward!" Another declared, leading the heavily armoured men onwards towards the gaping entrance. The cavalry road on ahead, meeting in skirmishes with the vampires as the Dumahim advanced to be the first defensive barrier.

The Zephonim along the walls had to pull back as they could not keep up their barrage while being constantly blasted by fire balls. This left the Dumahim without support. The leading Sunlight knight arching before the infantry clenched a chain-mail fist and his armour glowed with light. The vampires screamed in its presence and burst into flames. Then they collapsed into dust on the ground.

With the first vampire defensive line down, the Sarafan moved in. The remaining Dumahim were forced to retreat and their relief, the Turelim took their place. Leading their forces was their clan general, Turel himself. His fists were closed around a large battle axe.

The mages cast their fire ball spells at them in a flurry of hand movements but Turel held out a single hand and a mirror force echoed out around his troops like a shimmer of heat. Any spells intended to strike them rebounded and shot right back towards the Sarafan themselves. Two dozen infantry and a Sunlight knight combusted before they could do anything about it.

"Form ranks!" Turel barked and his large vampire children did as they were ordered, forming themselves into rows of ten; their shields held out forward almost like a wall. The Sarafan cavalry broke through the momentarily confused infantry lines to take the offensive. They clashed into the wall of shields, trying to jab through it with their lances but the line held up under the assault and quickly riders and their mounts were being chopped down by swings of long-blades. The Sarafan archers moved up, taking firing positions on either side of their infantry.

"Tortoise formation!" Turel declared and half of his troops angled their shields directly up, forming a metallic roof over them. The archers fired, but their arrows were unable to piece that barrier.

Quickly relishing they were going to have to engage in close range combat, the infantry formed themselves back into lines before charging with blades drawn at the Turelim. Both Sarafan and the clans were extremely well disciplined and trained soldiers and for a while it seemed as if the clash could go either way, but eventually the Sarafan's far superior numbers won out. There were simply far too many of them to deal with and the Turelim had to keep pulling back.

"Archers: loose!" Zephon declared as his reserves came into action, letting fly a volley of silver arrows that allowed Turel and his clan to withdraw and allowed Ruhab and his own soldiers to take up the fight in their stead.

Just when it seemed as if their defence might hold, a lone figure from the Sarafan raised his hand and a shaft of lightning thundered down, coursing through the vampires and ripping dozens of them to pieces at a time. Lord Aurora, second in command under Lord Sabre was an extremely powerful wizard. A fact he enjoyed displaying in full forced to the Rubahim to were trying to invoke magical barriers to stop him from striking them.

Fire and lightning rained down on the clans and with the vampires now in retreat, the Sarafan infantry charged forward with the archers either side. They could see the towers of Dark Eden from here. Kain himself was almost within their grasp.

They never even saw the translocation spell end. All they managed to catch a glimpse of where the dozens of vampires that seemed to appear from nowhere.

"Cabal; Attack!" Vorador orders and his own teleported troops, both vampire and human did not hesitate in clashing into the surprised infantry. Umah was already there with sword in hand, slicing through men two at a time; blood staining her face.

Janos Audron did not enjoy harming humans, but he had come to the conclusion long ago that these men were not human. No true human could be so cold hearted.

Casting shield spells of his own, Janos defended the Cabal from lighting strikes that Aurora was trying to bring down around them.

"Ah, Janos Audron." Aurora began almost excitedly, seeing who it was that was resisting his magic. "My challenger for the Pillar of Energy. I've been wanting to test your skills against my own for some time." Janos beat his large black wings and soured up into the sky, meeting the Druid there; the man was hovering high above using some form of arcane sorcery.

The Reaver sang as it sliced through the lines of soldiers, drinking deep their souls and through the blade; Kain could sense nothing in these men's hearts but hate. They weren't compelled here by concern for their families or paid enough gold. They were here because they honestly believed every word Sabre had told them and they rejoiced in their hate.

Seeing the sudden defence; the retreating clans stopped in their tracks. They were confused. They had expected aid from the Cabal.

"What are you waiting for?" Turel demanded, seeing an opportunity. "Attack!" Ruhab and Zephon ordered their troops forward as well and the clans about turned to charge back to aid the Cabal. Dumah already returned with his own reserves and quickly joined the battle.

Both men and vampires were falling by the score. The canyon was already littered with corpses, the ground slowly turning crimson. It seemed as if the battle would never end. The vampires had heightened skills the Sarafan solders did not, but the Sarafan themselves could rely on their sheer numbers.

Even Kain found he was beginning to tire under the relentless assault of men that charged as him. Sudden the situation worsened when the Sarafan generals at the front lines called in their own reserve troops. Another division of fresh soldiers marched down through the canyon to bolster their numbers.

"There are too many of them!" Archimedes, one of Vorador's agents declared, defending off an attacker with his katana blade. More mages came through the front lines, casting fire and lightning spells towards the vampire front lines. One of them struck Archimedes down the left hand sides, forcing him to move back to a safer position.

Vorador raised his claws and sent his own spell, a deadly blast of light forward. It tore two mages in half and sent several others flying through the air back into their own lines.

Without warning, there was a flash of white light as another spell enacted itself; but not one cast by either side. Both the Sarafan and the clans backed off as a translocation spell finished itself and two new forms emerged from the transport. One of them Kain recognised instantly. He growled and forged a deep frown.

It was Sabre, the new leader of the Sarafan Order.

The Elder's new errand boy.

Beside him was a figure completely clad completely in armour; even the face hidden behind lengths of chain mail and a jagged with the visor pulled down. Strapped along one arm was a short shield and in the other, the fingers of the gauntlet wrapped around the hilt of a long sword.

"My lord!" One of the Sarafan knights declared and dropped to one knee. All the others soldiers did the same, the entire rows of infantry, archers and mages descending to humble themselves before their master. The clans took the opportunity to form new ranks in a defensive line, Turel's well disciplined troops taking up the front with Zephon's archers behind. The Cabal formed up either side. They had taken losses but they were all still ready to fight.

Kain remained steadfast, his gaze fixed completely on the man in the golden armour; his hands tightening around the hilt of the Reaver. Sabre turned to face the vampire and smirked wildly.

"They're all yours my friend." He stated tapping the man in the armour on the shoulder before clenching fist and vanishing into the depths of another translocation spell. Once he had gone, the Sarafan army rose up.

Slowly the armoured man turned to face the vampires, sword in hand.

"You don't know I am, do you?" He asked; his voice echoing against the metal of his armour.

"Should we?" Kain asked.

"I am the scourge of the un-dead." The armoured man replied walking forward slowly. The Sarafan army formed themselves into ranks behind them and began to follow, the sound of their in-time footsteps emphasizing each one their new leader took. "I am the bringer of fire and death to the night dwellers." The long sword in the gauntlet's grasp was raised higher and began to spark with bolts of red energy. "I am the last of the first Sarafan Order." Bolts of lightning shot from the blade and struck several of the Turelim at once. Despite the shield Turel himself was casting around them it tore through their shields and ripped their bodies apart in a bloody display.

Slowly the armoured man reached up and removed his helmet with one swift tug. All those watching, Vorador especially, looked taken aback.

There was no head.

There was no neck.

There wasn't even a body.

The suit of armour was empty.

"I am Malek." The armour stated one last time, replacing his helm. Umah had heard about someone called Malek from Vorador. He had claimed he had been the guardian of the circle, but after his defeat he had been entrapped within his armour as punishment for his failure.

But Vorador had also claimed that he had put Malek down for good centuries ago. She glanced up at the face of her sire, it was adorn with shock.

"This night the vampire scourge is driven from Nosgoth once and for all!" Malek declared as his troops rallied around him. "This night shall be remembered throughout history as the night God smiled upon the human race. To me my brothers! Charge!"


	44. Boss 4: Election part 3

While dread crept into his mind at the very thought, Ramak was forced to agree with Princess Alicia. The Cabal and Seroli alliance had just received word from its spies that the battle between the Sarafan army and the Clans had begun.

It was still unclear exactly how the battle was processing, but whatever the outcome; an opportunity such as this was not to be missed.

The Order would be distracted with the conflict in the north and so many men away, Willendorf was left as vulnerable as it was ever going to be.

Resistance safe houses were discovered on a near daily basis and if the army won the battle at Dark Eden their political power would become absolute. If a revolution was going to succeed, it was going to have to take place now, while the Cabal still had the strength.

"The days of the Sarafan lord's iron fist rule over Nosgoth is over." The Werewolf leader announced to the coalition members assembled inside the warehouse. They had retreated here after their hideout in the Province's Upper City district had been compromised. "Yet the Sarafan continue to exact their control over us.

They proclaim themselves to be our protectors, yet they murder more citizens a day than the entire vampire race." Ramak turned to face the representatives of the Merchants Guild. "They drain all peoples of their hard earned money in ridiculous taxation and store it in their coffers; ignoring the condition of the state they claim to uphold." The merchants all nodded together and murmurs of agreement echoed around the warehouse from other faction representatives.

"They have been in power so long that they see any opposition to them as an act of heresy.

Our oldest fables tell us of their brutality, of the 'Cold-Blooded Righteousness of the True believer.'" Ramak paused then turned to face all of those present. "Are we going to let this age old Fundamentalist murder continue?"

"When the Sarafan Lord reigned from Meridian, My wife and children were killed because I was late on a tax payment." The Captain of the Royal Ottmar Militia stated as he rose from his seat. Despite his gleaming white armour and cape partly concealed by a worn cloak the man looked drained and haunted as if he hadn't seen a good nights sleep in years. "I still see their bloodied corpses with my waking eyes.

When the Sarafan moved their headquarters here, I prayed for the chance to ensure their demise. It seems my prays have been answers.

The Royal Militia are at your disposal."

"We are simple traders and businessmen, not warriors." The speaker for the Merchants Guild began. "And our hired mercenaries can not hope to compete with trained garrison troops.

We do however have skilled mages and sorcerers in our employ. Users of magic not associated with the Sarafan recruitment branch." Several groups began to murmur amongst each other. During the Order's reign, all humans who displayed magical talents were drafted into their ranks. Those who refused to cooperate were either press-ganged or executed. It was rare to find mages outside Sarafan control.

"And you choose to keep this a secret until now, why?" The captain asked.

"It wasn't deemed in our best interests to have any other organization outside our own knowing, at least for the time being." The merchant replied, his fingers pressed against each other on the top of the crate in front of him. "Harboring non-order Commissioned sorcerers is punishable by death as you're all aware."

Without warning a dark shape dropped down through the sky light in the roof of the warehouse, falling a good twenty feet before landing directly before Ramak in a crouch.

Ewoden was exhausted, his breathing coming out in loud and rapid succession. He dropped from his knees onto his hands, physically incapable of supporting himself any other way.

"Sarafan…. Magic….kill us all…." He managed to get out through his harsh breathing. Escaping from the Sarafan garrison had been strenuous enough, but he had also pushed himself like mad to get here as quickly as possible.

"Calm down lad, get your breath back." Ramak told him, dropping down to one knee and placing a hand on his shoulder. Ewoden paused to try and collect his breath.

"What happened Ewoden?" Obelisk asked stepping forward.

"I went… to the Order's stronghold…" The former knight breathed, thick beads of sweat dripping from his face and onto the floor. "They're gathering… what troops they can muster in the city. Arming themselves…. They're coming."

"What's happening Ewoden, what are they up to?" Ramak asked, placing his other hand on Ewoden's remaining shoulder.

"An Inquisition." He replied, shaking the sweat off the ends of his long hair. "Through the entire city. They're planning to march through all of Willendorf." Murmuring ran across the lips of all those at the meeting as they sprang into conversation with one another.

"What for?" The Militia captain asked.

"I don't know…" Ewoden replied. "But their readying nearly all of the garrison soldiers in the city for it."

Ramak shook his head and stood up.

"Even with the bulk of their army gone there are over two thousand armed Sarafan soldiers in this city. That can't just be for us."

"Oh my god…" Another of the merchants Guild speakers began. She suddenly looked horrified, as if she'd seen the face of the devil himself. "They… They can't… they can't be…"

"What is it?" One of her colleges asked leaning forward. "What can't they do?"

"During the original Sarafan Order's time, nearly a thousand years ago, The Sarafan exacted horrific means of vampire extermination." She explained without looking at any of those around her. "They would destroy entire settlements and villages to eradicate even a single vampire in their midst. Their bodies would then be stacked on pikes and left to rot… the killing fields of the righteous they were called."

"You don't think…" The captain began suddenly realizing exactly what she was getting at.

"They're going to 'purge' the entire city…" Ramak breathed, hardly able to believe it himself. "Wipe the clans out in the north, and us out in the south at the same time."

"That's idiocy!" Obelisk protested shaking his head. "That kind of plan would massacre all of Willendorf. They'd be no body left for them to rule over."

"It gets worse." Ewoden breathed, having now regained his breath and some strength he sat back up. "I saw what they were doing with those human remains they had shipped in."

"What?" Ramak asked, not almost afraid of what the answer might be.

"Necromancy." As the reply. A hushed silenced followed. Necromancy was magic practiced by one sorcerer at a time. Only the Guardian of the Pillar of Death was permitted to use it. Forbidden by all others, it was a taboo practice that was rarely spoken off in public.

Necromancy was a magic forbidden by the law. Sarafan law.

"They violate their own laws?" The captain demanded, angrily smacked his fist down on the crate. "All that needs to be said has been said. I will follow the Princess into battle against these monsters."

"I saw them bind soul to a suit of armour." Ewoden carried on interrupting him. "I saw them revive Malek." There was not a single person living under Sarafan rule that did not know that name.

The Order revered three saints.

One was Lord Moebius, the Time Streamer who lead the vampire hunters over two hundred years ago.

The second was William the Just, the boy king who was killed by a vampire.

And the third, and most famous; was Malek; the legendary Paladin.

The last of the original Sarafan Order.

Ramak slowly stood up. Plain shock on his face.

"This order has been plagued us for centuries." The captain began again. "This is the one and only chance we may have of bringing it down.

This is the Endgame."

Silence endured for another moment. Ramak breathed out through his nose and turned to face them.

"Are we all in agreement then?" The Master-Smith asked. Nobody said anything in argument. "Then the time has come.

We must strike first." He looked towards the Captain. "Inform the Princess that we are ready. I will prepare what forces we have for an attack." The man saluted and gestured to his compatriots to follow him. "To think we once believed we could survive if we tried to go unnoticed." Ramak muttered to himself. "My kind will never be allowed to live as long as the Sarafan remain in power."

"What about the battle in the North?" Obelisk asked.

"I'm afraid we've no other choice but to leave it to Vorador and his sect of the Cabal." The master-smith replied. "We'll have to hold up our end and hope that he can hold up his." He looked down. "Ewoden…" The former knight glanced back up. "I know your tired and it isn't fair to ask you, but our time is deadly short.

Do you know when the Order plans on performing this inquisition?" Ewoden shook his head and hoisted himself back up onto one knee.

"Only they intend on doing it soon. They were arming themselves when I snuck in. I suppose anytime within the next few days."

"Then we have no choice. we'll have to move tomorrow night."

"Can we organize a rebellion of that magnitude in a single day?" Obelisk asked with raised eyebrows.

"I don't know but we're going to have to try." Ramak replied. "Ewoden, I want you to go to the Royal palace. You're to protect the Princess Alicia. Do you understand?" Ewoden faltered looking a little confused. "That girl can rally more people to her than we can. We need the numbers and if she is killed, we are left facing some enormous odds.

I believe she is in danger."

Danger?" Ewoden repeated.

"I've suspected it for some time…" Ramak continued. "But now, after our safe house was found so easily, I'm sure of it. There is a spy somewhere in the Cabal. A Sarafan infiltrator. Our organization has been compromised." The former knight blinked once in surprise. "I do not believe it to be you or Obelisk, which is why I'm asking you to protect the Princess.

If the Sarafan is informed that she if working with us, her life is in great danger. We can't afford to loose her. Now go!" That last statement was barked in a tone that left little for argument. Despite his fatigue Ewoden picked himself back up and bolted for the open Warehouse window.

* * *

---

Upon returning to the Royal palace, Alicia went straight back to her chamber and sat on the balcony overlooking the city. The image showed to her at the temple of Midguard still tormented her mind, refusing to leave no matter how hard she tried to banish it.

It was almost as if she was there, standing in that alleyway; staring up between two burning buildings. People being dragged out of their homes, begging for mercy; before being killed in the most brutal fashion.

Blood ran thick through the street, pouring like rivers into the drains. Rape, murder and pillage were everywhere and the Royal Lion flag, lay smoldering at her feet. Having been shown this image, Alicia no longer cared about the kingdom. The ambition she once harbored for rebuilding the Lion kingdom had all but disappeared.

Now, she just wanted to be rid of the Sarafan.

The door to her chamber opened and she glanced up.

A single figure strode in. An old man with short grey hair and a beard. He was dressed in the finest red satin clothes finally riddled with golden needlework, the image of the Lion on one shoulder and the Sarafan icon on the other. An amulet hung from a golden chain around his neck. A cut ruby get directly in the centre of the golden pendant.

"Father…" She began starting to rise. He gestured up with one hand that courtesy was not necessary and she descended back down to her chair. Slowly the old man walked into the room and stopped almost in the dead centre of it.

He crossed his arms behind his head and sighed out load.

"Alicia, my court informants tell me that you left the city for a short while about a day ago." He began slowly. "Can you tell me where you went?"

"Am I forbidden from leaving?" The Princess asked.

"No.." The kind replied softly. "But I would still like to know where you went."

"The palace was getting so stuffy father." Alicia snorted leaning back in her chair now at ease. She had been on edge for a while but she knew from long experience that she could handle her pious father. "I merely went out for a short trip outside the city limits to rid myself of the current stench around the palace. Out for fresh air you might say."

"I see." Ottmar stated after a moment and then stepped forward towards her. "And how was your trip?"

"Uneventful for the most part." She replied. The king was now standing beside the balancing table.

"Have you still not figured out this?" He asked changing the subject, picking a square bronze object off it. It was a puzzle box. A container that opened once the correct combination had been acquired. "I would have thought by now you would have discovered the sequence." He rotated the rings around the centre of the box in his hands, sliding the runes back and forth until they aligned properly.

"Well you were always better at puzzles than me." She replied as it opened up.

"Yes." The king stated, staring at the empty contained for a moment before placing it down on the table slowly. "Which is why I can deduce that you are lying to me Alicia." The Princess looked up suddenly startled. "Fresh air? For pities sake girl what sort of idiot do you take me for?" His tone suggested uncharacteristic anger.

"I…" She began but the king cut her off.

"You met with Cabal sympathizers, Werewolves and Vampires didn't you?" He didn't give her time to reply. "You're plotting a rebellion against the Order." The doors to the chamber flung open and two bodies were hurled inward. Alicia gasped at the sight of Jessup and Fitzroy. Each of their knights had had their armour torn off and serious wounds carved in their bodies as if they had been attacked by a whirlwind of blades.

A good half a dozen Sarafan soldiers rushed into the room, swords already drawn.

"I'm sorry girl." The king stuttered, fixing her with a stare. "You have left me no other choice." Alicia looked horrified as Saber, new leader of the Sarafan Order and Druid Grandmaster walked in. His smug smile plastered over his face.

"Princess Alicia Ottmar…." He began facing her. "You are under arrest for high treason against the Sarafan Order."


	45. Boss 4: Election part 4

With their patron saint Malek leading the charge, the Sarafan soldiers regained their zealot fervour and attacked with renewed determination. The vampire clans were forced to retreat almost to the very walls of Dark Eden, the siege of the ruined fortress now truly underway.

Malek was ruthless as he sliced through the troops of clan vampires in his way, his sword cutting them down by the score. He was utterly fixating of hacking his way through our lines and refused to give any quarter; pushing forward, leading his men deeper and deeper into the clan troops; forcing them back further and further.

Even with my assistance, the vampires were fighting a loosing battle. The Sarafan had superior numbers and the added boom of a legendary warrior, giving them both the resource of his skills and a dramatic increase in their overall morale.

"Vorador!" He cried as he charged at our lines. "I've come for you!" Vorador fought beside me, his own blade red with blood as we battled back to back.

"I thought you killed Malek?" I asked him, parrying away a slash of a Sarafan claymore before lashing back out in retaliation.

"So did I." He replied, slicing his sword across the throat of a solider as he turned an unleashed a blast of magic straight across their numbers; sending several men flying high into the air. "I saw his armour crumble and his spirit fade. This I do not understand." I risked a glance up and saw that not all the fighting was occurring on the ground.

High in the sky above our heads, Janos and the Druid Aurora exchanged destructive spells as each attempting to best each other in magical skill.

"The legendary Janos Audron." Aurora said with a smile, his hands held up in front of himself, sparks of a lightning spells crackling between his fingers. "I never believed I'd actually be seeing you, let alone be your designated opponent." The spell rocketed forward with a snapping sound and it took a great deal of aerial grace for Janos to dodge it. "Amongst all the vampires throughout history, you are the one I hold the most respect for."

"You have a remarkable peculiar way of showing it." Janos replied; drawing the runes needed for a barrier spell in the air with two fingers. As a second lightning spell crossed the distance from the Druid to the vampire, it struck the invisible barrier and flowed out either side.

"I am not a zealot like Sabre, Janos." Aurora stated, flying higher to try and gain a height advantage. "But I want the Pillar of Energy. The promise of a Guardianship is far too great to allow personal inclination to get in the way."

"The pillar that amplifies the power within a person's body, making them capable of spells that could never manage on their own?" Janos asked, flapping his wings as he soured after his opponent.

"Precisely." Aurora declared, holding out his hand; a ball of energy sparking to life between his forefinger and thumb. "That's why the master chose us for the pillars we are candidates for.

Myself, the greatest spell caster in our army, for the Pillar of Energy.

Swift, the deadly assassin shade conjurer for the Pillar of Dimension.

And even Malek the previous Guardian of Conflict returns to reclaim his Pillar."

"That's not how the Pillars are meant to be used!" Janos told him, flying close enough for that the Druid could not fire whatever spell he was calling forward. The ancient vampire landed a kick across his chest, forcing him backwards through the air. "The Pillars are more than simple amplifies of ability."

"How right you are. They're the lock on a prison door aren't they?" Janos scowled in response to that question. "Why not let me win?

If we win the election then your immortal enemies, the Hylden, remain trapped in the demon realm forever. To suffer indefinitely." For the first time, a surge of guilt passed through Janos at the thought of the binding. "Isn't that what you want?"

"No I…" But that moment of hesitation was all Aurora needed to discharge a blast of intense magic that struck Janos full in the face and sent him tumbling towards the battlefield.

The final vampire in his way fell and for the first time in centuries, Malek caught sight of Vorador.

Slowly, he rose up and with his sword in his hand he walked slowly through the chaotic melee around him towards the ancient vampire.

Vorador saw him approach and stood up straight himself, blood dripping from the tip of his own blade.

"You are the reason I may never again feel the warmth of another human body. Or the sensation the wind against my face. Enjoy a meal or a tankard of Mead." The two opponents stood before each other, eyes meeting. "Because of you, all that defined life was stripped out of my existence."

"Your Sarafan hunted down my family and killed them without mercy." Vorador replied without blinking. "And then tore the heart out of the one I considered a father, leaving me alone in his dark, dying world."

"There is no wrath more terrible than that of the righteous!" Malek stated, swinging his sword up before charging. Vorador parried the strike away, before lashing out himself. The blade smashed against the armour of Malek's body but did not do much in the way of damage.

Malek darted in close, trying to ram his sword through Vorador's chest cavity but the vampire grabbed his wrist and threw his arm to the side to avoid the stab.

"And there is no vengeance more terrible than that of the unholy!" He declared, a kick landing itself against Malek's chest plate.

Knocked backwards the Sarafan ward, scraped along the ground before he came to a stop.

"The Pillar of Conflict in mine Vampire. I will not let you take it from me!" He stated, hoisting himself up. Vorador forged a grim smile.

"So you are my challenger for the Conflict Pillar?" Malek did not reply. He simply stood there, sword in hand. "How fitting." The vampire slid into a fighting stance, the blood stained blade held aloft. "Come Paladin. Earn back your Pillar!"

Malek charged once more, a battle cry slicing through the air as he moved. Vorador grabbed a Sarafan soldier to his left using telekinesis and tossed him through the air towards Malek. The Paladin brought his sword down, slicing in half one of his own men before he could collide with him and carried on running forward.

Turel's vampires formed a last defensive line before the walls of Dark Eden itself, their shields becoming a near impassable barrier at which the Sarafan soldiers threw themselves against. Behind the Turelim, the Zephonim archers fired volley after volley into the Sarafan hordes.

The canyon was littered with dead bodies and the stench was unbearable.

Any hope the vampires had of holding ground outside the walls of Dark Eden faded when another three Sunlight Knights marched onto the front; raising their hands up into the air and discharging a blast of light from their enchanted armour. Any vampire caught in it, ancient or otherwise, was reduced to dust within moments.

Believing themselves invulnerable to attacks, the knights left themselves wide open without any support from the foot soldiers. This was a mistake I make them regret.

Darting forward from the ruins with the Reaver held ready, I charged them; running through the discharge of light with their magical attacks not doing me any harm.

"Let us see how you appreciate my own tricks!" I shouted to them, wielding the Reaver up and focusing another elemental power through it.

Light erupted from the blade, spanning outsides and colliding with that being emitted by the Knights, forcing it back and back until it returned to them, the sudden flare burning their eyes.

They staggered forward now blinded.

It was a mercy for them as they hadn't the chance to see what was going to happen.

Heads rolled and bodies slumped to the floor and in the stunned aftermath, my sword was slicing through over a dozen Sarafan soldiers before they realized what was happening.

A whistling broke brought the air and glancing up I saw a large object hurtle over my head and crash against a ruined wall, crushing any vampires hiding behind it into the ground.

Trebuchets and Catapults had been pulled up from the backlines and boulders, rocks and even large clumps of earth were being fired at the ruins of Dark Eden. The doors held firm, but the walls and outer structure were being dealt a great dealt of punishment.

The Sarafan Generals stood beside the siege weaponry, watching the battle as it progressed. Even from this distance I could see these men were aging, bald and fat; Petty nobles who were handed the positions for unwavering loyalty to the Order and not because of any tactical skill.

Sunlight knights stood along side them, sending bolts of their own light down towards the vampire, destroying any with range.

"I do not believe we can win." Umah told me, sliding to me left with a Sarafan soldier's throat between her fingers. "We are outnumbered."

"That is plainly obvious." I replied, using a burst of telekinesis to send a solider who was trying to attack me from behind rocketing backwards.

"Go!" She told me. "Before it is too late to do anything."

"Go where?" But even as the words left my mouth the answer came to me. I had the cure and a way of opening the container.

"Now, while there is still something left to save!" Umah cried, darting between two soldiers, her sword ramming through their waist as she went.

"She is right." Raziel told me telepathically. "The clans will not win their battle by strength of arms. Cured however…" He let it hang.

A Sarafan armed with an axe came charging at me from behind. He swung the weapon down but found the blade did not connect with anything. Dozens of bats flew around him, before escaping into the sky.


	46. Boss 4: Election part 5

Knocking both of Swift's swords out of his hands to send them skidding across the chamber floor, William reduced the fighting to basic hand to hand combat. Punches and kicks were exchanged as the two of them fought on the brink of the dramatic plunge from the top of the apex.

"You think you know me Vampire?" Swift demanded; forcing William back to the point where his heal was over the edge. "Fine, I admit it. I really couldn't care less about the Order's campaign against your species.

But they promised me an eternal seat as the Guardian of the Pillar of Dimension." His grip tightened around the William's wrists, the metal of his gauntlets bruising the skin. "Do you know what kind of power the Third eye token that pillar grants its owner?" William glanced back over his shoulder briefly towards the long drop.

While he had wings, at the moment he hadn't enough muscle and nerve control over them to afford anything more than a short glide. A plummet like that he was not going to be able to take on. "With it enhancing my own summoning magic, I'll be able to conjure more than simple shades.

There's an entire dimension filled with demons just waiting for the opportunity to be unleashed."

"Are you insane?" William demanded. "Unleash the beasts of that hellish realm upon Nosgoth?"

"Imagine that blood and carnage they can inflict upon enemy cities, or how effective such beasts can be as foot soldiers." Swift replied with a sneer. "Imagine what kind of empire the Order could carve out of the ashes of this land with such armies, under my direct command!"

"Out of the ashes?" William repeated. "What do you mean?"

"Rebirth vampire!" With one final shove Swift pushed the fledgling over the edge, tossing him backwards over the abyss. "The Wheel of Fate's greatest turn!" As he fell, William lashed out and grabbed hold of Swift's ankle. Unable to stop himself in time, the Sarafan was pulled down with him. Grabbing hold of the edge with an outstretched hand Swift saved himself from a fall to certain death.

William refused to let go, grabbing the Sarafan's leg with both hands.

"You are mad!" He shouted up. "You'll unleash death and destruction of every living thing in Nosgoth!"

"And how is that any different from you goals here?" Swift asked down, bring his other leg up. "Or perhaps you're ignorant of exactly how the Hylden view all living beings outside their own race?" He foot came down on top of William's fingers, trying to break his hold.

William cried out and let go with one hand.

"Do you want to know how you can use magic, vampire?" Swift asked down. "No one taught it to you, did they?" William looked up in time to see a boot come crashing down. It smacked into his face repeatedly as Swift tried to force him to let go. "It's because of your ancestry. The blood of the very being who designed the Pillars themselves flows through your being. Perhaps the greatest Mage Nosgoth had ever seen.

The power he possessed is passed down to you, only to be fully realized once you became a vampire." A large sneer spread over Swift's face. "That was what those you call your allies were counting on. They want the Hylden freed and knew that only you, as the direct decedent of the Pillar's creator, would be able to do it." William looked up in surprise. "Understand now 'Sire?' You were brought back to complete that task and nothing more. You're a tool, to be used and then cast away."

The revelation struck home and William was left hanging there in comatose state. Was that really why Kain had raised him? To be the key in the lock binding the Hylden to the Demon realm? A simple tool to be used?

The explanation was so stunning simple and horrifying an answer that it left William unable to defend himself as Swift tore a knife from his belt and jabbed it down straight through his hand. The blade sank directly through to impale the bones of the fingers and William was forced to let go.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl at first as he slowly sank away from the top of the tower. Then it the tempo increased as the fledging tumbled down, crashing against side of the tower.

"William!" The seer cried out, dodging back from a swipe as Anubis came charging at her; the blades in her hands twirling through the air like meat cleavers.

"Time, time time." Anubis sang as she slicing through the air, her cleaves twirling around her as she dance. "Time to die!" The blade lanced forward to fast for the Hylden to dodge, piercing her left thigh. The seer screamed out and toppled back as Anubis wrenched her weapon clear trailing a river of blood.

The pain left her crippled, unable to get up; blood swelling from the stab wound, spurting in time to her heart beats.

Anubis smiled sadistically and lifted her blade to her mouth, tracing her tongue along it tasting the crimson stain.

"You are not human." The seer said from between clenched teeth and she struggled to push herself onto her arms.

"Now I thought that was obvious." Anubis replied, twirling the blade in his left hand around with her fingers like a fan. "Before all I did was hunt those that escaped the wheel, desperate to feed on what energy I could.

I was given a chance to come here, to be amongst his chosen nine, to never have to hunger again." With dawning realization, the seer gazed onto Anubis' face as if seeing it for the first time. The sharp jagged teeth and yellow eyes, features the Hylden had not paid much attention to. There was only one type of creature that had those.

"You… you are a Sluagh." She breathed as if she could hardly believe her own words. A spectral realm predator incarnate in flesh in the physical realm? Inconceivable.

Suddenly the name of Sally's own opponent who she was fighting at the far end of the chamber went through her head… Archon… "And him… is he…"

"Another of the master's servants given flesh in which to live." Anubis replied, spreading her arms out wide. "Oh it feels so warm, this body and its heat; its self propelling energy supply.

Finally I have a chance to live."

"You are an abomination." The seer hissed; struggling back as Anubis advanced with her blades held at the ready. "You are not meant to be here…"

"Who cares?" She asked and brought her weapons down preparing to strike at the Hylden's chest. The seer's hands clasped together on the blade, keeping it a mere inch above her skin. "I'm not going back to swirl in that endless twilight and when you lie dead on the ground and my place as Guardian of Time is secure I will never have to!" The Seer lashed out with her good leg, the kick striking Anubis along the thigh forcing her to drop slightly.

Using this momentum to her advance, the Hylden threw Anubis' weight to the side using her own blade as a lever. The incarnated Sluagh crashed down onto the stone floor. Wasting no time, the seer drew runes in the air with two fingers preparing a spell of compressed air.

Anubis countered by across her blades in front of herself as a shield. The blast bounced off the barrier and returned back to the seer; throwing the Hylden across the room before she rolled to a stop.

Archon studied the little vampire before him. She had the power; she was the one, the challenger…. The rightful candidate. But she still needed to earn her position.

Thus this vampire could manage was telepathy and self inflicted telekinesis. She was going to have to do better than that.

She crouched for him, ready to spring like a wild animal and every physical attack she tried he simply turned away with telekinesis.

"Enough playing, finish it Archon!" Anubis declared over the chamber to him. "Or perhaps you would enjoy returning to the Spectral Realm?" He looked back at her with a grim frown on his face.

Clearly, if he was going to provoke the reaction he wanted he was going to have to take some drastic measures.

He stared her down before reaching into his robes and withdrawing a silver knife, the blade gleaming brightly in the dim light.

Sally backed up, stopped by the wall as he approached.

Softly, his voice spoke into her head.

"This is the best you can do?" Archon asked her silently. "As a developing psychic I know you can use telekinesis." Archon ran his thumb along the blade testing its sharp edge. "You have one chance to survive Sally. Wrench the knife form my hand before I can kill you." Those last two words sank in heaviest of all and suddenly, faced the finality of death she was more terrified than she had ever been in her life. "Do it. I believe in you." Reacting instinctively she held out her palm towards him.

"Ewoden…" She cried out through the Whisper, trying desperately to reach him. "Please help me!" Before she never knew what was happening she felt a connection establish itself and strength flowed through the Whisper and into her.

The knife was wrenched out of Archon's hand. Telekinetically it was pulled into the air, before it swung about and slammed back into his shoulder; the blade embedding itself deep in the flesh.

Archon cried out and tipped backwards, slamming to the floor with the blade sticking out of him.

"Idiot!" Anubis declared, flicking one of her own blades up into her hand before she tossed it through the air like a spear towards the fledgling vampire. Sally' turned her head towards it and instantly the curved sword like blade stopped in mid air, floating there suspended by nothing.

Archon watched from the floor with a slowly spreading smile on his face as the sword swung around and soared back at Anubis. She incarnated Sluagh parried it away with her own blade before hissing angrily.

"This nonsense has gone on long enough." Swift sighted, drawing his sword. "If you're both incapable of dispatching your competitors then I suppose I'll just have to do it for you."

"And what makes you think you've done away with yours?" Anubis demanded.

"He fell to his death. What more do you want?"

"Fell to his death? Idiot, he has wings!" As if the fates had heard it, the faint sound of rustling feathers was brought to Swift's attention. He about faced just in time to received a punch across his face, the blow sending him toppling backwards onto the floor.

Archon's smile widened at the sight of William, standing there triumphant over the enraged Swift.

"Maybe your right and all I'm here for is to for fill a task to be cast aside afterwards." The fledgling said holding his injured hand close to his chest. "But regardless, it's still a role I need to and intend to fulfil." Turning his back on the Sarafan, William faced the gap in the wall; the ruins sight of the Pillars placed miles away but from the top of the tower was within his line of sight.

Holding out his good hand towards the sky, William focused himself inwards; trying to summon whatever strength he could as a strange connection was made between himself and some other force.

"No!" Swift declared as the air around them began to change, a steady shift that caused the world around them to morph as if it were an oil painting.

The sky above the Pillars started to darken, clouds gathering overhead. Clouds that were stained dark green.

I reformed myself from bat form and stood on the shore of the lake of tears, glancing up at the sky as the phenomenon took place.

"What is happening?" Raziel asked me. I had seen this effect before, at the Hylden gate where the Sarafan Lord had created his gate. It could only mean one thing.

"The Seer's collecting her fee." I replied with a small smile.

"The rift… I can't…It's too much…" William hissed from beneath clenched teeth. The strain of tearing the dimensional fabric and freeing the Hylden was taxing him to the extreme and the Pillars, even in their weakened state

"Yes you can." The seer urged him. "You said yourself, this is your task. A role you need to fill."

"Forget the roles!" Sally yelled to him. "If you open the gate, do it because it's what you want to do, not because it's what someone else requires of you." His muscles cramping, William dropped to one knee. The sky before him was churning bright green, the dimensional tear beginning.

Slowly, William pure white skin began to change. Renewed colour began to flow into the translucent surface, filling it with a pale aqua that began darker and darker until it was completely blue.

Sally watched William's hands in awe. He held them up towards the pillars, willing himself through them as he did; they changed. The five fingers melded together to form three, forming the cloven hands on an ancient. There it not for a different style of hair, he would now have looked almost identical to Janos.

"Kill him you idiots, kill him!" Anubis screamed, dragging her own blades through the air as she changed at William. Swift dragged his own sword forth and advanced on William from behind, preparing to drive the tip through his chest.

Archon reached out with one hand and tore their weapons from their hands with telekinesis. The blades flew across the chamber before their points sank into the far wall.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Swift demanded.

"What I came here to do." Archon replied, before sending two bolts of compressed telekinesis at them both. Anubis was thrown back to slam another wall, while Swift was tossed over the edge. Facing a fall to his death, he lashed out and grabbed William's ankle; refusing to let go.

"I…" Sally began.

"Say nothing little one." Archon replied, dragging the knife clear of his shoulder with one hand, blood staining his clothes. "You have done well."

"The master gave you a human body to enjoy and yet you betray him the moment you set foot in the physical plain?" Anubis demanded, struggling up to her feet.

"I've played devils advocate long enough. I came here to ensure the gate was opened and the Hylden were freed. Nothing more. I do not want the position as Guardian of the Mind." He replied. "Agreeing to that cancer's demands was the only way I could get here without being stopped." Despite the wound in his shoulder he adopted an unarmed fighting stance. "You mindless Sluagh. You relish in pain and torment of other souls. I am not surprised you were chosen to be one of his chosen nine."

"I don't understand…" Sally breathed with wide eyes.

"If I am alive in the next five minutes you may know more." Archon stated. "For now, help him open that gate!"


	47. Boss 4: Election part 6

The clans were now desperately defending the walls of Dark Eden itself and the Sarafan had taken ground within the entire canyon. The ground was strewn with corpses, both vampire and human left where they fell. Massive stone throwing weapons were brought up and held at the back of the Order lines, a steady barrage of rubble tossed directly at the walls. The red stone of the ruin refused to let up under the attack, remaining solid even as the stone smashed itself against the surface.

Zephon's archers remained atop the battlements, letting loose a constant rain of arrows that killed any infantry that attempted to storm the walls.

Malek himself was directing the bombardment of the ruin, directing the catapults and Trebuchets to where they should concentrate their attacks. When it became clear that it going to take more than stone to breech those walls the Paladin called for the deployment of their most powerful siege weapon.

"My lord Raziel!" One of the clan vampires cried out, jabbing the tip of his sword over the battlements towards the Sarafan lines. The general looked out to see a massive instrument being pulled by many horses up to the mouth of the canyon. Its size was unbelievable, mounted on a giant wooden harness. A large metallic barrel, hung in place on the harness by length of thick ropes and chains.

Vorador knew what this was.

In recent years, men had discovered a substance that had the potential to chance the ways war was fought forever. The Sarafan had been quick to conduct research in how to use it.

This substance was called gunpowder.

"Cannons, get down!" He called out to Raziel in warning. A moment later the air seemed to spilt apart at the noise. A massive earth shattering sound that shook the ground. The entire canon was thrown backwards by the shockwave as a massive ball of metal was sent hurtling through the air at tremendous speed to smash into the top of the western wall. The battlements exploded in a spray of dust and brick fragments, taking vampires from both the cabal and the clans up into the air.

"Standby infantry." Malek declared as the task of reloading the weapon which was still trailing smoke began. "And soon as the wall is down make ready for an assault."

Up along the walls of the canyon, Janos Audron hung to the edge of a crevice for dear life, a fall to the canyon fall far below him. His left wing had been injured in the fall and without it he could not fly to safety. Instead he began the long process of pulling himself up to the top, hoping that none of the Sarafan archers would spot him.

A soft laugh reached him and glancing back, Janos saw that floating nearby was Aurora. The druid had his arms folded inside his robes and a superior smirk across his face.

"This is almost too easy." He laughed and with a slight inclination of his head, a bolt of magical energy lanced from his body and stuck the cliff face above; carving a deep hole in the rock. The rubble began to fall threatening to knock Janos from his preach.

Drawing runes in the air with a single finger, Janos invoked a spell of his own. The rocks hovered just above him for a moment before flying horizontally at Aurora.

Before the druid could stop them the debris slammed into his body and sent him falling down towards the ground below. Using the time as best to his advantage as he could, Janos began pulling himself further up the cliff face towards the top.

Aurora crashed into the ground cracking several of his ribs. He shook the dirt of him and pushed his way back to his feet, hissing in pain and annoyance. The Druid glanced up at the sight climbing towards the top of the cliff.

Snarling the Druid reached down and snatched up a sword that lay half an inch away from the hand of a dead soldier.

"Reloading complete sire." One of the Sarafan generals announce to Malek as the second of the head sized iron balls was loaded into the cannon and gunpowder and wading poured down into the barrel after it.

"Aim at that weakened section of wall." The paladin replied. "Have the battering rams and the infantry ready to charge as soon as it strikes. Once the wall is down, concentrate your fire on the towers." The jabbed the empty finger of his gauntlet at the spires of Dark Eden just beyond the massive wall. "Remind your men, none are to lay their sword upon Vorador accept for me."

"My lord, I can't find him." One of General Raziel's sergeants came running up to him quite out of breath. "I can't find him anywhere!"

"I'm in the middle of a damn war man, who can't you find?" Raziel demanded with fangs past the lip.

"The master, my lord." The vampire replied. "I can't find Master Kain anywhere!"

"What!" Before anyone could do anything, another shot from the cannon soared through the air and struck the wall. Shards of stone flew outwards into the barricades, impaling some of the vampires and killing them instantly.

The impact sight cracked, compromised holes breaking through as the wall was now severely weakened.

"Battering rams and infantry approaching!" Dumah called down from the battlements. "They're going to try and break through the walls!"

"Get your archers up there!" Raziel yelled in Zephon's direction. "Kill those teams before they can breach our walls." The clan leader was already on it, his bow in hand; scaling the stairway to the top of the battlements alongside his own archers. "What do you mean you can't find the master?" The general demanded, about facing on his sergeant.

"That's just it. I've searched his chambers, the war room and had the entire Acolyte coven searching the fortress. We can't find him anywhere." Raziel swore loudly but his words were eclipsed by the loud crashing sound of the battering rams on the walls. The infantry were propping up scaling ladders against the walls in an attempt to scale them and the clans were just shooting their soldiers full of arrows.

"It's no good Raziel." Turel told him. "Another direct hit from that cannon and they'll be inside the walls." The general himself was still swearing loudly.

"My Cabal and I will destroy that behemoth." Vorador announced. "Concentrate on the defence of the walls."

"Your forces won't last five minutes on the open battlefield." Turel told him but the ancient wasn't listening. His vampires were already rallying to him. Raziel growled, baring his fangs.

"Forget about him. Just concentrate your defences on the walls. Even if it is breached do not allow any infantry through to our rear." Turel nodded. "My soldiers at your command until I return." With that he took off towards the ruined fortress entrance. If word got out amongst the troops that Kain was missing their morale would crumble as if it wasn't even there and the Sarafan would walk right over them. Raziel had to be sure.

Reaching the top of the cliff, Janos paused to catch his breath. Below from this vantage point he could see the assault the Sarfan's cannon was having on the walls of Dark Eden. Infantry platoons with large battering rams were even now attempting to breech the weakened sections.

Janos was injured but he did have some magically reserves left. Summoned all at once it should be enough to destroy that monstrous engine of war. Pushing himself unsteady to his feet, the ancient raised a hand and spread his wings.

"Enough!" Something grabbed him by the ankle and before he could turn around to see what it was, a sharp object slammed through his back between his wings narrowly missing his heart.

Janos cried out, sinking down to his feet and almost tumbling over the edge of the cliff. The sword blade cut through his flesh easily pushing down. Aurora drove the blade in deeper and deeper, breaking ribs and cutting flesh until the tip burst out the front.

Blood spurted out of the entry and exit wounds, covering the ground in red.

The Druid stood up breathing heavily, murder etched into the expression on his face.

"That pillar is mine vampire!" He snarled, raising his hands with the sparks of magical energy crackling between his fingers. Janos crouched there with blood bubbling between his lips; the blade had gazed a vertical and severed several veins. He was loosing too much blood. "I harbour more energy in my body than you or anyone in this world could hope to. That guardian position rightfully belongs to me!"

"Do you know…" Janos began with blood ridden lips, reaching around behind him and grasping the blade with his hand. He braced himself before pulled it out trailing blood. He gagged forward and collapsed onto the ground, fresh blood leaking out onto the floor. It had gone some damage coming out but at least now it wasn't resting against his heart. "Do you know what energy is?" Aurora said nothing but the build up of power continued in each hand. "Energy is the driving force behind everything. It's more than simply magical power.

Energy is everything, even physical form. It holds everything together; the atoms and molecules, electrical protons that sub atomically make everything up.

Even the air we breathe is put together by energy. Without energy there can't be anything." Despite the pain and loss of blood Janos stared up defiantly at him. "You don't know the first thing about the true nature of energy so why should you deserve a position as its guardian!"

"Enough babbling!" Aurora cried, the energy reaching its peek. "Die vampire!" He threw his hands together and then down and the spell rocketed forward, screeching as it spilt the air. At the last second Janos brought the broken sword blade in his hand up to intercept the magical discharge.

Destructive magical spells was little more than light focused into a burning form, much like exposure to intense amongst of sunlight. Light was a form of energy made up by colours of the spectrum, which could be spilt and returned by a crystal or a reflective surface.

While the sword was broken and cracked, the soldier who had owned it had kept it well polished.

Reflected back at him the magic struck Aurora head on and he screamed out load as it burned him.

His robes scorched and burnt away, even the ashes vanishing. His skin blistered and burnt followed by the flesh underneath, peeling back layer by layer. Not a drop of blood was lost, all of it evaporating before it could strike the floor. The scream continued long after the flesh of the throat vanished

The bones of the skeleton remained longer than the rest before they too blackened and fell to ash, crumbling down to the floor.

With his death the light died away.

Janos dropped the dulled sword blade and staggered forward, coughing up blood. Despite the pain in his chest, Janos felt strangely warm and at peace and a feeling of connection began to grow.

Far south, Sabre stood alone below the vacant stone and marble stand that had once marked the location of the pillars. He had been there for some time simply waiting. Feeling the sudden shift in the air around him and in the ground below his eyes snapped open.

The crumbling parts of the Pillar of energy nearby shook as if given new life and slowly they rose into the air. As those flew up they fitted together like the pieces of a puzzle. They massive pillar moved until it was directly over its former place and then fitted into down. It stretched up so high into the air that Sabre couldn't see the top if it had one.

From the base, the cracks and compromising lines began vanishing bit by bit. It was wonderful to watch. It took mere moments and once it was finished the restored Pillar of Energy stood erect and pure. White as the best marble without a single blemish all the way up.

"He lost." The Druid muttered to himself. "I suppose I put too much faith in Aurora's magical abilities." Loosing the one guardian position was not a great blow. There were still eight up for grabs and as long as their side controlled the most positions they could still go ahead with their plans. Still, this omen did not bode well for their future prospects.

Without warning the sky above started to turn a dark shade of green. Distant thunder rolled on the horizon. The restored pillar almost growled in response.

Sabre glanced off towards the east knowing full well the source of this strange phenomenon. Swift and the other two sent there obviously weren't doing their jobs very well.

"What should I do master?" He asked looking up into the sky. There was silence for a moment. "Understood."


	48. Boss 4: Election part 7

The Sarafan made no secret of Princess Alicia's arrest. It was publicly announced within the hour that the Ottmar family had renounced the traitor and all those involved in her plot against the 'welfare of the state' would be hunted down and executed. Soldiers marched out of the royal keep shortly after the proclamation of a grand inquisition. Marching through the streets of their own city they garrison forces went from house to house, shop to shop; rooting the people out of their homes and forcing them into the streets to huddle together in fear.

"We are the Sarafan!" A captain declared to them. "We are rulers and you are peasants. You will obey our word or die." To show the crowd he was not bluffing, several impaling spikes were ejected in full view of those assembled. "Any thoughts of heretical rebellion will now be extinguished." The captain gestured with a flick of his head to several up front and the soldiers moved forward, pulling several children from the arms of their parents.

As the five and six year olds were brought up towards the spikes, soldiers began setting fire to marked business and shops. The flames spread up through the buildings quickly, windows bursting with torrents of fire and burning timbers collapsing to the ground.

"Please NO!" A mother screamed as she was hurled back by several Sarafan as her daughter was dragged forwards the spikes and lifted to be impaled.

"For the love of god, she's only a child!" An elderly shopkeeper cried out.

"The only love god has is for the Sarafan." The captain replied without even looking at him.

Two arrows flew out of the air and impaled themselves through the skulls of the soldiers that held the children. The metal barbs burst out through the foreheads in a small explosion of bone and brain.

"Killing children?" A voice out of the night demanded. "Does your order's bloodlust know no end?"

"Up there!" one of the solders shouted and the captain stared up.

Standing upon the rooftops, a large iron war hammer held like a gentlemen's cane was the Seroli Master-Smith, Ramak. Maintaining human form he stood there half eclipsing by the light of the full moon in fine burgundy linens and shirt with iron plates over his shoulders and chest for armour. Eyes alight with a soft golden glow.

"People of Willlendorf, hear me." He shouted, his voice carrying over the rooftops. "We are the Seroli-Cabal alliance." Along the rooftops on either side of Ramak rose dozens of vampire archers; their bows already drawn back with the arrows ready to let fly. "We are the vampires and wolves you have come to fear but those that claim to protect you would murder helpless children.

They fear you so they punish you for no reason to keep you docile. They fear you because you outnumber them. Their armies are absent, their power lessened. Join us, strike now and for the first time in history let humanity be free from Sarafan domination!"

"The rebel sinners!" The captain shouted. "Kill them all!"

"No!" One of the Merchant Guild's agents who had cleverly infiltrated the crowd declared and others turned to stare at him in wonder for his defiance. "The Cabal are right. Vampires be damned, it's the Sarafan who are the real enemies of mankind!"

The first to stand up in defiance was an old man, a shriveled sixty year old with grey hair and a frail body.

"Stand down old beggar." The captain told him, drawing his own blade from the sheath as his side.

"My brother severed in your army but you people killed him because he refused to do some of the horrible things you ordered him to." The old man stated. "And now when you stand ready to massacre innocent children I see why. I can't be silent anymore."

"I'm telling you to get back in line!"

"And I'm ignoring you." Amazed at the man's sheer nerve the captain's eyes widened in impotent fury. A knight moved to cut the man down but before he could a woman in the crowd stepped forward. Followed by a small boy, and then a well built blacksmith and another three woman, several retired militia men and a bard armed only with a dagger.

"You dare oppose the Sarafan?" The captain demanded.

"Enough is enough." The old man continued. "I don't care if the words come from the Cabal. We're better off at the mercy of Kain himself than you people."

In the end it wasn't the Cabal and the Seroli's shadowy alliance that showed the people who the Sarafan really where. It was their order's own lust for brutality, their zealous need for control that spelt their own demise.

For all their faults the humans had a fantastic hidden strength. Once united in a common interest they became an unstoppable force capable of running over any opposition placed in their way. It was this strength the Sarafan had exploited time and time again from the day they were founded, using the vampires as scapegoats to rally the people under their banner.

This time however the tables were turned. The sword the Sarafan hand had wielded for so long was now turned against them and they were about to feel its strike.

"From one age to another, the Sarafan have oppressed the world of men and what did men get in return? Did they receive the protection they were promised?" Ramak asked from above. "No! The bloodletting grew worse and the people were too afraid to speak up." He branching his hammer with both hands and held it high. "I call upon you all, every man woman and child to see the Sarafan for they really are.

Bullies we've been letting run our lives for eons. Well not anymore!"

"Kill that bastard!" The captain shouted. A Sarafan archer raised his bow, but was shot down instantly by several arrows from the vampires.

"Attack!" Ramak yelled, leaping off the edge of the roof tiles swinging his war hammer above his head.

* * *

-

"It's a rebellion, the market district has been completely overrun!"

"What?"

"Impossible!"

"The peasants have taken to the streets. They're renouncing the order."

"That's heresy!"

"Tell them that. They've overtaken the distinct completely, whatever garrison force got in that mob's way was almost literally trampled on."

With the garrison forces now committing themselves to taking out the rebellion peasantry, the forces defending the royal palace and the order fortress were weakened sufficiently enough for Ewoden and Obelisk to infiltrate the island in the middle of the city. According to the announcement by the order Alica had been taken to their securest dungeon for 'questioning'. From personally experience, Ewoden knew that when the Sarafan said 'questioning', they meant interrogation through intimidation and when they felt like it; outright torture.

"If only we'd gotten to her in time." He growled to himself.

"Spilt milk." Obelisk stated overhearing him. "If we can get her out of her then it might not all be for nothing."

The need for stealth now no longer a factor the two of them bulled their way through the weakened defensive line the Sarafan had erected across the bridge connecting the island to the mainland.

Axes Havoc and Malice in his hand Ewoden cut down several ordinary class soldiers that charged him while Obelisk tackled a Glyph knight to stop him drawing his massive sword. After a short power struggle Obelisk slammed the knight up against a wall breaking the man's spine.

The remaining soldiers, their numbers dwindling, retreated back behind the checkpoint door and closed the massive wooden gates.

"Damn clouds." Obelisk spat, a mixture of saliva and blood landing on the ground. "If only I could see the full moon, then we could get through her with ease."

"Well just have to make do." Ewoden replied; drawing runes in the air with two fingers and unleashing a fireball spell. The massive wooden door was set ablaze, burning through unlike it blackened. All it took was a powerful ram from Obelisk to send it toppling over.

Several archers were waiting for them, bow strings already drawn back and arrows being let loose. Ewoden arched his fingers, calling into place a barrier spell Janos had taught him. The arrows bounced off some invisible object in mid air, leaving Obelisk a clear shot. He drew a massive sword blade and charged, slicing one half clean in half before running another three through.

"It's just two men, kill them!" Someone up on the battlements shouted as more archers ran out.

"In through the front gates, hurry!" Ewoden called, racing for the still open towering door that lead into the interior of the fortress with Obelisk close behind them, a rain of silver arrows attempting to strike them.

The Sarafan had made the mistake of attempting to control the peasants through intimidation and now it was costing them. Their forces here in the fortress were far too sparse to defend the structure, even against two men. Several times as they battled their way up through the stronghold they had narrow escapes and Ewoden had to rely a lot more on his magic than he was used but eventually the two of them carved their way through into the inner centre of the Sarafan's fort.

This was the chamber Ewoden had witness Malek being revived in, a round room with a door on the far side from the only they entered by. Waiting for them directly in the centre was a solitary figure. A tanned skin man with long hair tied back by a bandana.

Ewoden recognized him.

"Kal?" He asked, lowering his axes. This was the Seroli agent who had helped him escape from his place before.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Obelisk demanded. "Why aren't you helping master Ramak fight?"

"There's no need." Kal replied quite calmly. "Even as we speak, a regiment of trained Sarafan mages is closing in on the peasants from behind. They'll take the citizenry by surprise and half of their number will be dead before they have a chance to know what hit them.

The Sarafan garrison will have no problems exterminating them after that."

"You…." Obelisk started, eyes growing wide and the side of his mouth twitching. "You gave them our secrets! You let them know." He jabbed his sword point at Kal. "You're the traitor Master Ramak was looking for!"

Kal managed a smile.

"I couldn't have done it alone." He stated. "If it wasn't for Ewoden here, but wouldn't have known about the Cabal's plans in the first place." Ewoden staggered back looking stunned.

"You remember that concoction I gave you, to help quiet your stomach after the first transformation you had into the form of the wolf?" He asked. Ewoden maintained a stern expression. "Well, what I didn't tell you was that mixed in amongst the alcohol was a specially brewed potion created by the Sarafan's best alchemists.

It created a link between one of their mages to yourself. For a short while he was able to see all that you could, hear all that you could." Kal smiled sadistically. ""You were our inside man Ewoden." Kal stated. "Through you, the order learned all about the rebellion and the Princess' betrayal."

"How dare you speak about betrayal!" Obelisk snarled, raging fury clear in every muscle twitch that occurred in his face. "You betrayed your own kind!"

"I like gold." Kal replied with a sneer. "That's all there is to it." Growled and barring his hands Obelisk drew his sword.

"I swear I'll kill you for this you bastard!

Kal laughed and clicked his fingers on both hands, two daggers flying out his sleeves and the hilts into his grip.

"Come and get me then. I kill you it's another thousand gold pieces to me so come on!"

"Go on, I'll deal with this scum." Obelisk shouted, shoving Ewoden forward around towards the far door before charging with a loud battle cry.

As the two of them exchanged blows Eowden forced the far door open and swung inside, running down the long corridor with the sounds of battle fading behind him.

The horrible irony of it all made his stomach turn. The former knight been so eager to find the Sarafan informant in their ranks when it turned out it had been him all along. Without knowing it he'd been feeding the order with information. Just how long had it been going on for? Had they seen what happened at the Midguard temple?

He may have single-handedly handed the Sarafan their victory.

Ewoden came to an abrupt stop and stared. Standing there with his back to him, waiting for him at a flight of stairs that lead down was Sir Gaunt.

The Sarafan warrior was in full armour, his long red cape flowing out behind him. As Ewoden neared, Gaunt reached up and removed his helmet letting his hair drop out.

"I've been waiting for you Werewolf." He began, reaching to his side. With a long hiss of metal grinding upon metal he drew his sword blade. The long, rune covered weapon slid out off the shield upon his arm and was held level with the hand that held it.

"So it would seem." Ewoden muttered in reply. Reaching behind him, he grabbed hold of Havoc and Malice; holding them in both in each hand.

Slowly Gaunt turned around to face Ewoden, his long hair flowing from the top of his head around the wide armour plates around his shoulders.

"You and I have business." He said slowly.

"I don't want to fight you Gaunt."

"Well that's just too bad." The Sarafan pointing his free hand forward and drew several runes in the air; unleashing a spell of lightning. Elemental sparks of magic erupted out of thin air. Ewoden ducked, rolling to the side out of the way as they lashed past them scaring the wall. "Lord Sabre made it clear to me. We are rivals you see. Rivals for the same Pillar."

Ewoden picked himself back up, keeping his body rigid in the best fighting stance he could manage.

"I understand now why fate has placed me standing before you with sword drawn and why I find myself disgusted with your kind more than the vampires. I am chosen to be the Guardian of Nature." A psychotic smile crossed his lips. "I'm destined to kill you. You and all your ilk. You shape changers are perversions of nature, alterations from god's perfect design.

You profane the form of man and wolf alike and for that, you must die."

Outside, the sky began to turn a pale shade of green.


	49. The Elder's purpose 1

The sky churned, the clouds turning a sickly green and the roar of distant thunder echoing on the horizon. It was the sky of the demon realm that dwells beyond this world; the world into which the Hylden were cast. The seer was putting her plan into action. By now, William was opening the gate between dimensions. Being the candidate for the Pillar of dimension and the decedent of Baal himself he had the power to open the pathway between. It was this power the seer had been waiting for all her life.

Even from this distance, I could feel the enormous strain carving a hole in reality was putting on William. The bound between vampiric father and son was strong especially just after the transformation and in some small way I shared in his burden.

Unfortunately I could not be there in person to help him. I had my own chore to do and time was running out.

The lake of tears lake before me. A colossal body of water that stretched half of Nosgoth's length from the southern shores to the northern mountains. Within, somewhere, lay a lost Hylden city. Flooded long ago during the ancient war it remained trapped beneath the waves, undisturbed for eons.

Within Vorador had assured me, lay the device required to open the canister.

I merely hoped Janos had been correct and the cure, once exposed to the air, had the potential to cure all the vampires in Nosgoth.

I attached the brass container to the leather sling around my chest, tucking it underneath the Reaver blade near my imperial banner. I need both hands free in order to swim. I was sort of out of practise in the sport.

I tested the water with my toe to assure myself that the immunity to water the Leviathan blood had given me was in valid. My skin did not burn on the touch and I broke into a run, wading out until the water lapped around my waist.

Contrary to popular belief vampire are required to breath. I had no idea how long I would have to remain down there and taking the biggest breath I could manage, I dived into the water.

The lake was dark and murky and even my eyes were not able to penetrate the gloom. I quickly cast a brief spell of magical illumination and that ceased to be a problem. Weeds and algae lined the lake floor with the faint silvery flash of a water snake passing in the midst. The water was almost completely devoid of fish and any that happened by seemed malnourished and sickly looking; showing just how much the pillar's decay had effected the geological process in Nosgoth.

As I swam further and further down, I had the penetrating feeling that I was being observed.

And not by the fish.

The first signs of the ruins I was looking for came when I happened across several pieces of rusty, jagged metal half buried in the weeds. They led off in one direction and I followed them, coming across half collapsed sections of pillar and even a statue of a Hylden warrior heroically holding a cracked stone sword aloft.

I crossed over the edge of a precipice and in the gorge below was what I was looking for.

The flooded city lay below him, towering constructs of a fusion of metal and stone stood directly in the surface; leading up towards the surface; their peeks almost touching the waves. The streets of this place were cracked open in fissures, their buildings crumbled and strangled by the weeds.

I swam down to investigate and as I descended, that annoying feeling that I was being watched intensified.

I knew better than to simply put this down to nerves and paused to feel the surrounding environment telepathically, searching for any lurking observers.

All was mostly still but out the outer edges of my awareness I did feel the faint brush of someone other being, moving swiftly through the depths to evade me.

Something here **_was _**watching me.

Umah's face flashed into my head, reminding my intently that I had work to do. Let whoever found me interesting watch if they so wished. If they tried to interfere I would deal with them.

I passed underneath a half fallen arch of stone that might have served as the city gates at one time and down through the street. I did not know precisely what I was looking for. Hylden architecture was too foreign from what I was used to seeing for my to understand. Vorador, being an avid scholar on the subject, had told me I was looking for a big building there their laboratory would be.

I had seen such a laboratory once before at the Hylden city the Sarafan lord had used as his base. This building would be set apart from the others and large enough to conceal the Hylden's arcane science.

The buildings at the centre of the city seemed like the place to start looking.

Reaching them was no great task. Getting inside however proved to be a more difficult endeavour. I found no doors or windows, only a never ending sheet of curved and riveted metal. I tapped the side of it with my fist, listening to the ring inside. The walls were too thick to rip through. They had to be to remain standing when compressed by this much water.

On the verge of turning away I noticed something in the ground near the base of these towers. It was a circular plate plated horizontally along the ground. Most of it was covered in reeds and I could see this was my way inside.

Just above this was a smaller wheel with hand grips. This, I summarised was the handle. I took hold of it with both hands and began to pull. Even under the water I could hear it groan in protest. The metal had been sitting comfortably for thousands of years and did not seem anxious to get moving now.

"Kain!" I heard Raziel call out. I glanced up just in time to see three large slimly green tentacles with suckers coating their undersides rise up from fissures in the ground and tower of them. One of them came crashing down towards me in an attempt to crush me under its weight.

The water slowed my reaction time down and it was only by luck I managed to unsheathe the Reaver in time and slash the tentacle across its front. There was a powerful flash of light as the wound slid open in the slimy flesh.

A foul green liquid poured out of the wound and intermixed with this I heard the agonising screams of tormented souls.

Dozens of men, woman and children fleeing from the wound in a vain attempt to escape their captor. The Wheel of Fate.

The other two tentacles came crashing down and swimming up I avoiding their strikes. Understandably, I was at a disadvantage fighting underwater. I had no experience with such circumstances and found that the weight of the Reaver in my hands was throwing my off balance.

A laugh from a familiar voice echoed up from the depths and five more tentacles came smashing their way up through the ground, screaming towards me as if the water friction wasn't a factor.

Rebounding of the tip of one as it tried to strike me down I swum down through the water as fast I could. My lungs were burning inside my chest, reminding me that I could not hold my breath indefinitely. I pushed the Reaver's sword tip into the short gap between the porthole doorway and the ground. Using the blade was leverage I began forcing the thing open.

I was aware this was not what the ancient had in mind when they crafted the Reaver but needs must.

The door refused to budge at first, remaining steadfast like a stubborn mule but it could not compete against the material the Reaver was made out of.

It was about then I discovered why the door had been so reluctant to move.

There was an air pocket behind it.

As the oval door swung open, a thick bubble of air blew upwards forcing me backwards and several of the tentacles to recoil.

Then the water rushed in and helpless to avoid it, I was sucked inside. The tentacles lashed after me, slamming themselves against the entrance but they were all too large to fit inside.

"Come Kain, come down to the depths!" The voice of the Elder echoed at me from out of the darkness.

The force of the current too strong to fight against I found myself torched down through unseen dark tunnels until I was thrown out of the water and into open air.

Before I had chance to take a breath I was found myself slammed hard against the cold metal surface of a wall. The breath was knocked out of my lungs and I fell back onto the floor.

I gasped out, calling more air into my lungs.

Despite the throbbing pain in my head I pushed myself up, feeling the water rise around me. I was in a large metal room which the tunnel I had just been thrown out of was filling up with water. A door lay in the far side, marking the only other point of exit.

Ignoring the protest my lungs made at further exertion I waded over to it.

Apparently the Hylden were Aware their city was due to be flooded and had made some preparations for it. These doors were air tight and reinforced to withstand high water pressure, purpose built for aquatic conditions. I unlocked the door and stepped inside, pushing it shut against the water behind me against the air pocket. The airtight door hissed at the seal was remade.

I spat the water out of my mouth and shook some of it out of my hair.

"You travel in the deep vampire, through the endless darkness that pulsates beneath the world of men." The voice echoed through the metal corridors. "It is here I reign supreme."

Reacting instinctively I drew the Reaver blade. Even my eyes could not penetrate the darkness that stuck to the everything like a spiders web. Unleashing the blades elemental power of fire, the Reaver became a beacon of light; illuminating my way and revealing the presence of three Shades attempting to sneak up on me.

The Reaver slashed forward, stabbing one of the dark phantoms through the throat. A half silenced gurgle escaped it before its body dissipated into a cloud of smoke.

The other two came charging at me, only to follow their first with a single swipe of the Reaver across their mid sections.

"Mere shadows given form? Is that the best you can do?" I asked, glancing around in case any more were waiting in ambush.

"These are merely the Material servants." The voice continued as I advanced down the empty wet corridor that stank of rust. "These are nothing compared to the forces I have gathered in the Spectral Realm."

"Where they can do you no good."

"I'll see to that soon enough."

The shadows in one corner drew themselves up as if manifesting, three glowing violet eyes standing out in a mass meant to resemble a head. Claws made of darkness racked themselves at me. I blocked them with the razor edge of the Reaver, before bringing the claymore around.

The creature doubled back from the blow, before despite its injury attacked again. I dodged, then drove the blade through its head. With this final blow it disputed, the darkness of the shadows vanishing with it to reveal a set of metal mesh stairs heading down.

"I've been meaning to have a conversation with you for some time now." I stated, proceeding down the flight of stairs.

"I can't image we would have anything worth discussing." The reply drifted out of the dark shadows.

"I have been to Midgard." I told him. "I have seen the truth there. I have seen the hands of those who crafted Vampire, Hylden and Man alike. I don't suppose you'd be willing to tell me what you know of this parent race?"

A low chuckle escaped the unknown.

"Ah, the parent race. One can not begin to calculate how much time has passed since the last of their number faded into the wheel."

As I reached the bottom of the stairs, I stopped at the sight of the large corridor before me. The walls were metal just like the rest, but cracked and broken in placed where something of large size had pushed through.

Across the ceiling, clinging to it like creeper plants, were slathering green tentacles. A piece of rock clinging to a massive eyelid moved aside and a large blue eyes stared down at me from above.

"Perhaps I '**_should' _**illuminate your dark mind vampire, so that when the end comes you will know the history upon which I draw."

"That is unusually generous of you." I remarked, ignoring the stare of the eye and carrying out. The tentacles on the roof all moved in my direction one by one briefly then turned away. "I expected you not to even consider it."

"It is of little consequence whether you are aware or not as ultimately it would do you no good. Even as we speak, the clans of your former self are on the verge of being crushed, as is the rebellion the Cabal tried to put into effect in Willendorf. Before this night is done any organised opposition to my Sarafan Order will be gone."

I let my head roll back and I laughed out loud, the sound echoing though the subterranean metal halls.

"So… now that Moebius is no longer divining the future for you, you must rely of open warfare and oppression to achieve your goals?"

"If I must."

The ground underneath my feet trembled and four tentacles burst through the metal, fragments flying into the air as they emerged. They slammed down on the floor as I reached for the Reaver blade and with one sharp tug, pulled the ground upon which I stood down with them.

"Eons before Vampire, Hylden or Man set foot on the earth; Nosgoth was a dead husk of a land. A volcanic barren continent of ash and rock, the only life forms being microscopic bacteria." The Elder told me as I descended, further and further down into the dark abyss.

"It was then that a race of beings who called themselves Norse came here, escaping the mistakes they had made that destroyed their own land."

I came to an abrupt stop, the floor piece crashing into a solid object far below. The tentacles withdrew, sliding back into whatever crevice they had crawled out off.

I was now standing before a wide metallic studded ramp that lead upwards into an adjacent chamber made of stone. Keeping the Reaver firmly in my grasp, I carried on forward. Here and there I noted smaller blue, octopus-like, eyes staring at me.

"They were a foolish, vain people; who truly believed their advanced science was the answer to everything in existence."

The chamber was clearly not of Hylden design. The markings covering the walls, ceiling and floor were completely foreign to me. I hadn't seen them in either Vampire of Hylden ruins. It was a form of rune language that had long been forgotten by the world.

Judging by the forced entry I suspected the Hylden had been excavating this place before their city had been flooded.

There was a large door at the far end. Engraved on the surface of that door was the symbol of an eye.

"Using that science they had attempted to alter fate itself, by trying to do away with death. Tried to make every living thing Immortal."

The door slid open, pulled adrift by tentacles within the stonework and I had to hold up a hand to shield my eyes from the flash of light that leapt up at me.

"Behold their folly."


	50. The Elder's purpose 2

The flare was only temporary.

After it reached its peak, the light died away and I lowered my arm. The sight greeting me was a phenomenal surprise and this is something I must readily confess. If the Hylden were masters of machinery, then the 'Norse' Parent race were the gods of machinery.

A massive chamber, around like sphere with the surface painstakingly engraved with a form of language I did not recognize lay within. But that was not what caught my attention. Within the centre of this room was a machine of rings.

Dozens of thin metallic rings encircled each over; each one smaller than the last as they withdrew inside. Along each ring was a metallic sphere with engraved in their surface, the nature of which was lost upon me. Within the exact centre of these rings was the source of the light which had momentarily blinded me.

A large cut crystal with no distinct colour but glowed with an entrapped light within, its surface a pale ruby quartz.

"No clever comments Kain?" The Elder's voice asked as I stepped forward to examine this bizarre machine further.

A stone catwalk ringed the outside of the spherical chamber, allowing one access to all sides of the rings.

"Just what is this?" I asked , fearing perhaps that I was being misled.

"What you see before you is a machine that the Norse used to measure the world and all worlds beyond it. To measure time and space and even history itself. A recorder that allows one to see the history of the race that made it." The Elder replied. Although I saw no giant eyes or tentacles in his chamber, his presence was no less more potent. "They called it an Orrery."

"An impressive construct, but I do not see why you choose to show me this." I stated, trying to put on a sceptical a face as possible.

"Perhaps you should try paying attention instead of strutting about then." The Elder's voice sounded snippy. "Place your hand upon the pedestal in front of you."

I glanced down. Sure enough a stone pedestal had escaped my notice. It was about waist high and had a hand impression on its flat top.

I had no guarantees that it wouldn't kill me if I touched it and I wouldn't put such an obvious trap past the Elder. Still, morbid curiosity getting the better of me I complied and pressed my left hand down.

There was a loud shunting of turning heavy metal from somewhere out of sight followed by a brief moment of pregnant silence. Then the outer most ring on the Orrery began to move, twisting and turning back and forth. Then the next ring began to rotate, followed by the next one and the next one. One by one the rings began moving, spinning around and through each other faster and faster. They blurred by and even my eyes weren't enough to keep up with them.

The crystal in the direct centre sparked like an igniting sun and light radiated out. The turning rings intercepted the light and as they moved, they formed an image within the sphere.

In this image, an image made of pure light, I saw a vast empty darkness and in this darkness; stars came into being. Attracted by some force, rocks and other debris from here and there collected around these stars; becoming planets and moons.

On one of these worlds came life and I realized I was witnessing not only the birth of Nosgoth, but of the planet of which it was a part.

"This world was spun out of the cosmic chaos that dwells beyond the sky." The voice of the Elder told me. "Life persisted on its surface for eons until finally, the Norse came into being." The image changed as if time as passing rapidly and I saw a race of people emerge.

They were shaped like humans only taller, with blonde hair being something of a racial characteristic although there were many variances. At first they lived in caves and hunted prey with wooden spears while marvelling at a burning tree after it was struck by lightening.

But as time past they became more and more advanced until finally their cities dwarfed anything even the most talented Hylden architect could conceive. "Seeing themselves as 'chosen', they began to grow arrogant and deadly ambitious; seeing the only obstacle between them and godhood being death itself.

Perceiving a world where death was no longer a factor they attempted to defy the Wheel of Fate." I watched as some invisible force ceased these people. At first, it made them strong, vigorous and let them live far beyond their natural life spans; but eventually it all went wrong.

Their bodies degraded and aged rapidly, their children were born dead by the dozen and all surrounding life began to wither away as all of its energy was spent in one go.

"What you fail to understand about the Wheel of Fate, Kain, is that it was a system in place long before I existed." The Elder announced. "It maintains life by ensuring the energy needed to exist is no foolishly squandered, that once that energy is used up it is returned to the Wheel where it can do good.

The Norse foolishly tried to pump this energy through bodies that simply could not handle that amount of it. The result was their race damned itself."

The image before me changed again and I saw the land of the Norse had died. It was a dead husk of a place, devoid of even the smallest hint of life. Unable to live there and fading fast, the Norse set sail from their northern coastline on massive ships.

Searching for a place to start again they crossed the ocean, many of their number dying in the attempt until finally they washed up on the shores of a island where the City of Willendorf would be built in thousands of years.

"And even then they refused to give up… on the verge of extinction." I muttered. These people were dying by the score yet even so they kept going, refusing to completely surrender to death's cruel hand. For all their mistakes I could not help but feel a respect for these people.

"They were idiotic lumps of flesh without the intelligence to realize when it is hopeless." The Elder snorted, sounding unimpressed. "Had they the slightest fraction of the wisdom they claimed to have, they would have died on the spot and saved themselves decades of unnecessary pain."

"Perhaps by your logic."

For the Norse, Nosgoth was a harsh and bitter land where crops would not grow and their people died in ever more alarming numbers. By the time they established the ancient city of Midgard in the eastern mountains they numbered less than five thousand.

Using their science and by a means I did not understand, they cultivated the land; introducing the spark of life into the dead earth. Even with their decline, the Norse's power was enough to generate life across the entire continent.

It was breathtaking to watch. These people transformed a barren wasteland into a vibrant country overflowing with life.

"Hoping that perhaps they were not too late to save themselves, the Norse tried desperately to reattach themselves to the Wheel of Fate, to restore their mortality to its normal rate." The Elder continued and the scene changed.

I observed several Norsemen standing over a large glass tank full of saltwater. Bubbles rose up from vents in the bottom and a huddled, dark shape within was silhouetted by bright lights from above.

"Desperately they experimented, trying to bring themselves back within the eternal circle but their efforts were futile. By their blasphemous acts they had damned themselves.

Realizing this they attempted to artificially reconnect themselves by the creation of a being that would act as their link between the Wheel and their own souls."

The shape in the water moved as a spark like lightning was passed through it. Like a shadow being given life, the darkness moved like an aquatic creature; dragging itself over the bottom of the tank towards the sides.

"That being, Kain… was me."

I scowled at the sight of the hideous green life form as it moved slowly up towards the surface of the water, dragged by deformed tentacles and moved in small neon blue eyes.

"So… we all share a common heritage then?" I asked out load.

"As more and more Norsemen died, I did as I was created to do; I returned their souls to the Wheel and they were grateful for it." The Elder carried on ignoring me. "The more souls I spun in the wheel, the greater the share of energy I had and could take sustenance from but despite this I could not restore the flow of life for the Norse. Their species had been far too badly damaged and were beyond restoration.

Realizing that eventually they would go extinct and the Wheel would cease to turn, I prompted them into creating new sentient races to occupy Nosgoth, a way to atone for their folly."

The image changed again and I saw that time had past. The infant Elder was not much bigger, filling the whole tank and the Norse leaders seemed to be in constant communication with it.

"Faced with limited options they followed my advice and through the last of their science they gave birth to the three races that walk the surface."

Again the picture warped and churned, moving from one event to another before it finally settled to show me several more Norsemen. They were gathered around a round glass tank, once again filled with water. A white liquid was intermixed with it and once a spark past through, the white substance began to move together to form what looked like a skeleton.

"To the Vampire race, they gave them wings and light weighted bodies, gifting them with intimate knowledge of the arcane magic's so that they might rule the sky." The voice around me announced almost piously. The image before me showed the first vampire, blue winged with raven wings stepping out of the laboratories for the first time and into the light, shielding their inexperienced eyes from the flare.

"To the Hylden; they gave aquatic bodies and slender forms; filling their minds with their archive of technology so that they might rule the ocean."

The first Hylden resembled the Seer more than the rest of their race. They were taller and thin, with bony plates along their backs and chestnut brown head hair. Hardly anything resembling the insect like people who resided now in the Void. They emerged from the crumbling city of Midgard to behold an the coastline south of Willendorf.

Several hesitated, before one of them took a running jump at it and divided into the clear water's of the ocean. Prompted by this, the others followed.

"The third and final race was the Human." The Elder stated. "The Norse gifted them with neither great magic nor great science, but instead their strength lay in their adaptability.

More than any other race, including the Norse themselves, the Human's could adapt and survive in nearly any environment. This gift was freely given so that the Human's might rule the land."

The very first humans almost resembled the Norse's original forms themselves but they were shorter by a good half foot and less broad. They were let loose into the green pastures across what was now the city of Avernus.

"Not long after that, the Norsemen dwindled one by one until finally they vanished and the last of the soul's rejoined the wheel."

The image vanished completely as the glow from the crystal ceased. The wheels stopped turning altogether and the entire chamber fell silent.

Raziel projected himself beside me, his semi-transparent form feeling almost real to my sense.

"However, after long contemplation I decided that the Norse had not yet paid the price for their foolishness." The Elder added slowly and I glanced up. "Why should I grant the mercy of reincarnation to those who spurned the Wheel?

They reside with me, in my eternal presence where their souls might learn the necessity of me."

"Then those screams…" Raziel demanded. "Those screams I heard more than once, while I traversed the Spectral Realm… those were the screams of the Norse?"

The Elder gave off a deep chuckle.

"The Norse had served their purpose by provided me fresh souls with which to turn the Wheel.

Do you see now Kain… even IF, by some astronomically lucky fluke, you DO manage to destroy me; you will not destroy the Wheel.

I turn the Wheel for I am the devour of Death and the origin of life, for without me the three races would not exist. Yet the Wheel transcends even me.

Your quest is hopeless, Kain, and perhaps like the Norse, it is time to accept that."

There was a loud hissing sound from behind me, the unmistaken sound of a sword being removed from a scabbard.

Reaching for the Reaver, I swung about ready to face this new challenger but at the sight of it I faltered and staggered back in utter surprise.

It was a vampire with white skin that was turning a shade of light green, a row of horns emerging out of his hairline. His eyes were bright gold and hair snow white, long and tied back behind him. The face was long and the cheekbones very pronounced.

The armour he wore across his right arm as bronze and laced with serrated spikes along the outside. A red clan banner hung across his shoulder, clipped to the armour and hanging down behind him.

Strapped across his back was a claymore sword; held it place by a sheath across the armour.

The hilt was ivory bone, a skull staring out from directly in the middle. The blade itself wasn't straight but wavered like a serpent right up to the tip.

The sword and wielder were all too familiar to me.

Facing me, as impossible as it seemed, was myself.

"You and I…" The vampire began. "Must talk."


	51. Boss 4: Election part 8

William

* * *

The sudden lurch was undeniable. Every single Hylden felt it in the form of the sensation of a lifted burden. All of them stopped where they stood and gazed up in astonishment at the neon green sky above them began to crack open, sparks of power lancing down through the fits driving the hole open wider. 

"That can't be…" T'kral, leader of House Pyre stated gazing at it in complete and utter disbelief. "Impossible!"

"No cousin, I can feel it too." The Hylden female beside him replied, gazing up at the widening rift with equal wonder. She was Y'alp, leader of House Aqua. She had been direct subordinate to their patron the Hylden General and while their leader had been alive she had been the one chosen to lead his army out of the gate they constructed. "The binding is not only failing… it is being removed!"

"Then what are we waiting for!" A large Hylden demanded, barging his ay into the chamber. He was a foot larger than them and while most Hylden had a thin almost skeletal like form his body had a good deal of well developed muscle on it. His name was Py'tor, the leader of House Terra.

He was already in full bronze battle armour, the armour plates spread over his legs and chest; a helmet placed over his head; the glowing green eyes staring out through the visor.

"This may be the one and only chance we ever have to escape this place."

T'kral did not take his eyes off the opening rift. Who in Nosgoth had the ability to remove the binding?

The one thing that had kept them tethered to this place, unable to exist outside it without an open passage to and through. The chains Baal placed upon their race so long ago.

"Are you deaf?" Py'tor demanded, placing a large hand on his shoulder tearing him around to face the larger Hylden. "I will not let our chance be lost on stunned awe. Now are you coming are not?"

It did not take long for the Houses to marshal themselves. All Hylden could see the rift and feel the lifting of the binding on their souls.

This was a relief unlike nothing they had left before. The pillars were weakened to the point where an invasion attempt that been possible but even so the bindings of Baal did not allow them to leave the dimension without an open gateway there.

Kain had foiled their General by shutting the gate and once that line had been cut, all the Hylden still standing on Nosgoth's soil died.

This was not so here.

The binding was disappearing completely and if it did… the possibility of such a thing put the Hylden into awe. If such a thing happened then they could leave… without consequences.

G'tor the leader of House Aer already has his entire house mobilized outside the city by the time the other four arrived. His automatons, the mechanized robotic soldiers the Hylden sometimes employed as scouts were flying skyward into the rift.

All watching held their breath as the metallic shells ascended and finally disappeared into the light.

The scientists who built them, occasionally called mages and alchemists by the uninformed, told their liege that they still had sense of their creations beyond.

"That is good enough for me." Py'tor declared. "To me my housemen, this night we return to Nosgoth!"

"G'tor sir!" The leader of house Aer looked up as one of his scouts came running towards him. "Demons are approaching the rift from the city perimeter. They're not responding to our commands."

"What?" T'kral demanded.

"How many?" G'tor asked but the scout did not need to answer. A loud roar echoed up and glancing up towards the ridges surrounding the Hylden settlement. Standing there alone was a black fire demon, spikes jutting out of its shoulders and arms and red eyes burning. It stared down at the Hylden, red eyes blaring, as if challenging them.

The Hylden had tamed many demons in their pursuit to survive in this evil place. Now one of their breed was challenging their authority.

A moment later it was joined by more demons up on the ridge, a dozen of so lesser fire demons all blaring smoke and fire from their mouths as if to intimidate their enemy.

"They're trying to flank us!" Y'alp announced and T'kral turned to follow her gaze up towards the plains on the fair side of the city. Movement could be seen as a sizeable number of lesser demons; insect like predators moving amongst the jagged rock structures there.

The black fire demon on the cliff roared once again and more joined its army, at least twenty lightning beasts manifesting around it one by one in flashes of blue light.

"They sense the rift." The female hissed through clenched teeth. "They seek to take Nosgoth for themselves."

The rift above intensified, widening open like a fissure and through the whips of power encircling it; another sky was beheld.

"Stars…" G'tor breathed. "I see… I see stars!"

The black fire demon watched the rift for a moment, snorted loudly out through its nostrils before turning its attention back to the Hylden.

"These beasts will kill us if we do not go." T'kral spat. "If this is truly the day of our salvation then let our luck be put to the test!"

Before any of his fellows could stop him T'kral hurled himself upwards towards the rift. Caught by its pull he was pulled higher and higher until finally he past through.

* * *

--- 

The ancient city of Avernus had been almost completely destroyed by demons summoned by Azimuth over two hundred years ago.

It had been no coincidence that she had chosen this place to do her summoning, for Avenus stood over the original Hylden gate; a passageway constructed by the ancient vampires. It was through this that the Hylden were banished.

After so long, lying dormant under the earth, the gate stirred.

Massive gears began turning and with a ground that shook the heavens, the underground doorway began to pull itself apart. A fissure tore its way down the centre of the ruined city. The ancient crumbling buildings began toppling in one by one, falling down into the abyss.

The massive cathedral which had stood for hundreds of years, built by the first Sarafan order, cracked like an egg. The spires toppled down, crashing to the ground and breaking into bellowing clouds of dust.

The walls around the abandoned settlement cascaded down, crumbling like sand and falling to the ground engulfed in clouds of dust.

Before it was over most of the ruin had been swallowed up by the earth. Moments later a geyser of swirling green light rocketed out of that dark void to strict the sky infecting it. A low squeal and screeching echoed up from the darkness along with it, a protest of trespass made perhaps by the earth itself.

William could feel the gate opening and he could feel objects already coming through it, unshackled by the restraints placed upon them.

"You stupid idiot." Swift hissed picking up his sword. "You could have fallen to your death and that would have been the end of it. Yet you persist like some cliché hero of folklore!"

Around the human shades began appearing, dozens of creatures made from darkness; all swirling like liquid with three purple eyes as the only solid piece.

"I've spent years trying to make my way to the top. I won't be denied now by some deluded vampire!"

His jabbed his sword forward towards William's exposed back. Even before the blade could strike his shades were swooping forward, forming claws out of their darkness.

William clapped both hands together, the sound surprisingly louder than it should have been and echoing where it should not.

Before him, a rift tore itself open; a hole running vertically down through thin air; spraying neon green fumes out Swift's face. His shades froze as a massive head, adorn with horns near a skull like face pushed itself out.

The demon was over eight feet tall, covered in short red fur and bulging with muscle, standing on its goat like hind legs and gigantic teeth in the midst of its jaws.

It roared as it pulled itself fully out the gate, long claws slicing forward trailing fire. These talons racked through the shades, tearing through their flimsily forms and searing them as if they were solid flesh.

Swift backed up and tried to run, but before he could take two paces the demon's giant mouth snapped down on him from above.

He managed to let off one scream, before he was crushed by the powerful jaws. The serrated teeth tore off the human's legs and blood spilled out to stain the floor, red spraying into the air.

William, his face contorting with effort, tried to fight the fatigue being forced upon him. But eventually the pull was too much and he collapsed to his knees, sweat pouring off him.

The demon remained, hunched over the remains of its victim, lapping up the blood and chewing the fat off the dismembered legs.

"This is your fault traitor!" Anubis hissed at the injured Archon, who sat down on one knee nearby; gripping a hand to the deep wound in his shoulder. "The master will subject you to eternal torment for this heresy!"

"Let him." Archon replied. "I've spent far too long as a hunter of souls to willingly serve him ever again. Their screams as they are used to feed him still haunt me, their agony I feel every moment of my existence." He looked up towards sally "I was nominated by the master to be his candidate fore the Pillar of the Mind.

I now relinquish that position to you." He hand a hand on Sally's forehead. "I knew from the first moment I manifested in a human body that I was not meant to be a Guardian.

Perhaps now, I fill find some peace. Perhaps now, the screams will stop."

"Ah yes, the screams." The expression on Anubis' face turned intensely sadistic. "Oh the delicious screams. I love hearing them, crying out for help which they will never receive.

The master gave me the opportunity to be more than feral beast a prowling the underworld.

He made you the same offer and yet you spit in his face. Well I will..." She was interrupted by a loud roar. The demon had finished stuffing down the remains of Swift and now it had turned its attention on her.

It charged at her with arms spread wide, mouth open with fire burning between the teeth. Leaping back, the incarnated Slugah leapt out of the way as its claws slashed down, bearing open the stone floor.

"Damn you!" She spat, before clapping her hands together and vanishing in the midst of a translocation spell.

"William, control that beast!" The sear shouted to the winged vampire. William however was too exhausted to so much as lift an arm never mind force his will over the creature.

He was too tired to even notice that the small rift through which the demon had entered their world was still open.

Without any warning, a slender form began to push itself sway out. As if sensing the intrusion, the demon turned and snorted a a hairless hair with glowing green eyes emerged, followed by the rest of the body.

T'kral nearly fell out of the hole in reality, rolling before coming to a stop. Reaching before him instinctively, the Hylden brought his scythe to bear.

"I made it…" He breathed almost in debrief. "I... I actually made it." He glared up at the sky above. While the rift was staining it a pale green it was undoubtedly not the sky he was used to seeing.

"NOSGOTH!" He screamed in complete triumph, standing up and holding his weapon higher. Laughing like a madman he relished in the feeling of the cold wind on his skin and the sensation of freedom, denied from him for centuries.

The demon roared loudly, scrapping its hind legs across the floor before charging at T'kral with its mouth wide open.

The Hylden looked down at the last second and slamming the blunt end of his weapon down on the floor, using it to pole-vault over the creature as it lunged at him. Spiralling up over its blade, he brought the blade of the scythe around in a swinging arch; the metal singing as it moved through the air. The song ended abruptly when the curved blade struck flesh, and then bone.

In a single stroke the Hylden decapitated the beast.

The demon's body tripped over its own feet as it moved before crashing down to the ground. The severed head rolled a short distance before tipping over the edge of the tower and falling.

Once the demon was dead, the small rift William had pried open closed with a soft whoosh of air.

But T'kral was still there.

"It's gone… the binding is… its finally gone." The Hylden took a long breath. "It may not be at its best but it's a damn sight better than the air once must breath in the demon dimension." He paused, before turning to face those present. "I felt myself pulled here. Which of you did it? Which of you removed the bindings?"

"That would be him." Archon muttered, gesturing with a toss of his head towards William; whose wings were draped over his body almost lifelessly; sweat dripping off each feather.

"A vampire?" T'kral asked in utter astonishment. "A vampire… of all beings… destroyed the binding?" He walked over and roughly lifted William up, staring him in the face. "Are you mad? My people will hunt down and destroy yours. You've doomed your entire species." He made a face. "And perhaps even more.

My people are preparing to leave but even as I speak, the native demons of that realm are preparing to leave after them.

Unless you shut the gate after my people come through then you're going to have an invasion of hell hordes streaming through Nosgoth."

"That is a chance we will just have to take, T'kral."

T'kral froze at the sound of the voice and he left William drop. With a twitching of his hands, his scythe fell from his hand and clattered on the floor.

Slowly, he turned around to face the speaker he came face to face with the Seer. His mouth hung open in mute astonishment and the demonic green glow in his eyes died down as if a fire were burning through the last few embers of its life.

"S… s… sister…"

Miles away, at site of the pillars the broken stone began to stir again. The remains of both the Pillar of the Mind and the Pillar of Dimension began rising out of the ground, the plants encircling the fragments snapping under the stain. Fitting together like a complex puzzle they moved up, sliding back into their places until the pillars were complete against.

With one final metamorphosis their dulled, cracked surfaces changed to whole and pure marble white.

Three uncorrupted pillars now stood where for centuries none had graced the skies. Around the base of the pillars, the dying plant life began to look ever so slightly greener.


	52. Boss 4: Election part 9

"What in the name of god…" The Sarafan General asked in utter astonishment as the green sky above sparked with yellow lightning. Those on the battlefields both the side of the clans and the side of the Order, paused in their fighting to stop and stare up in confusion as the sky burnt with neon flames.

Even Malek had to stop as the extraordinary events began to unfold.

"What Sarafan trick is this?" Turel demanded, staring up with a stunned expression on his face. Raziel stood beside him, his curved blade in one hand and the dead body of a Sarafan soldier hanging from the other. He bared his fangs and paused his face into a frown.

"This is no Order magic. The lord told me about this." He stated, looking past the Sarafan lines towards the southern horizon. To the southern east the green vortex infecting the sky seemed to be the brightest. From his knowledge of the terrain of northern Nosgoth Raziel knew that spot to be the site of the ruined city of Avernus.

"Hylden!" He hissed.

"But our lord told us they were banished!" Turel protested as Raziel dropped the dead soldier and flexed his arms. "I thought the Sarafan Lord, the demon, was dead."

"This is the rupturing." Vorador stated standing on the battlements of Dark Eden, staring up at the sky. All the Sarafan archers where so stunned not a single one was taking a shot at him. "The binding that keeps them bound is past the breaking point. The shackles have been removed."

"And just what is that supposed to mean?" Zephon asked, his vampires still standing by on the battlements beside them, even if their attention was diverted at this point.

"This moment means either salvation or destruction for our people." Vorador replied. Suddenly his face went alert, ears standing up rigid and eyes wide. Hs glanced up sharply towards the top of the eastern cliff face hedging them in. "Janos!" He declared in alarm, clapping his hands together and vanishing in the midst of a translocation spell.

Re-emerging out of the midst of the spell on the precipice, Vorador scanned the ragged rocks that littered the plateau. Nearby between two boulders he found the smoldering remains of a robe lying in amidst a pile of blackened ash.

Glancing back, Vorador saw a trail of blood leading away from it towards the cliff edge. Draped across the edge, blood dripping from the wound in his chest was Janos Audron.

Slowly the winged vampire rolled, further and further until he was tapering over the edge. Vorador leapt forward at last second, rolling through the dirt before catching his sire by the foot before he could take the plunge.

"I can feel it Vorador…" Janos whispered as Vorador tried to pull him back up. "I can feel it. The Pillar of Energy."

"That's nice to hear sire." Vorador grunted, hauling the wounded vampire back up onto the ledge. The wound ran right through Janos' chest from his back to his front, thankfully only just missing his heart. However he had shattered several ribs and his lung had collapsed. On top of this he was loosing a lot of blood. If he did not receive blood and soon he would die.

Acting on instinct, Vorador called forth a shower of magically summoned blood. The spell was not easy to maintain for long periods of time and was only manageable by vampire ancients, which was why it was not largely used by the vampire community, but as soon as it rained across Janos' body and began seeping into his mouth and the wound near his heart he started to heal.

Diverting all of his mana into maintaining it, Vorador kept the rain going for as long as he could. When the flesh closed around the gaping hole the rain stopped and Janos tried to sit up.

His skin was still torn in places and his muscle sore but at least now he was not on the thread hold of death.

"I prevailed Vorador… I can feel my position as a guardian of the Circle of nine, a connection to my very soul." Janos carried on, almost oblivious to either his wounds or his healing. "And now I understand now they left, the original circle. Baal and the others spoke of it often, but as the tenth guardian I could not experienced this bound.

It seems my destiny has been kinder than I ultimately believed."

With sudden purpose in his eyes he looked straight at Vorador.

"You are next. Your election is now." He gestured with a nod of his head towards the battlefield below. "Your opponent awaits."

Vorador followed his gaze and saw that Malek, despite complaints from his men, was walking alone out onto the battlefield towards the walls of darkened, his sword in hand.

Something deep inside Vorador noted this moment as an important turning point in his life, as long as it was.

Something that had been started from the moment he had accepted the Dark Gift was about to reach its apex.

He looked back at Janos a moment.

"I will be fine." The winged ancient assured him, placing a hand over his injury as he looked with a faint ironic smile at the green vortex to the south. "Now, before we are waist deep in Hylden. Finish this business with the Paladin."

Vorador took in a deep breath, stole a wary glance at the vortex, before clapping his hands together and hading into the white haze of a translocation.

Malek stopped halfway between the Sarafan front lines and Dark Eden. He was out of ear shot of his soldiers but still out of range of the clan archers. He adjusted the shield on his left arm and waited.

His challenger did not keep him waiting long.

Vorador appeared a short distance away, his own in hand with his golden eyes fixed on the animated suit of armour that served as the Paladin's body.

"Personally, I do not care whether the Order wins or loses this battle." Malek stated, turning to face the vampire. "One who has seen the endless twilight of the underworld places little importance's on the affairs of those who dwell on the earth, mortal or otherwise."

Vorador did not reply. Malek chuckled a little.

"Can you grasp the horribly ironic connection we share?" He gestured out around him. "I killed many of your brides and assisted in the death of your sire. Beings you swore to protect.

In return, you killed those wizards and guardians **_I_** was sworn to protect.

Since then both of us have attempted to claim neutrality in the wars of Nosgoth, you hiding in you swamp and me in my Bastion.

And only by ending that neutrality did we face each other again in this very spot.

And now, for a third time we meet in battle."

"Third time lucky." Vorador stated, rearing back his free hand and flashing forward a spell. Malek sliced up through the air, his sword cutting the magic projectile as if it was something solid. Green fire trailing after it.

At the sight of it Vorador felt a pang of familiarity.

"I am cold Vorador. This metal body knows no warm, and then you tore my former prison apart I thought I might find some heat in Heaven.

Only to find there is no such place and the underworld is even colder than the metal." Grasping the hilt of his sword tight he rushed forward. "I am eternally cold and I have you to thank for it!"

Vorador parried away the tip of the blade so it flew to his side, slicing through the end of his coat. The green flames were intently hot, burning the fabric like an fireball. Red lightning cracked along its length as well, burning through the air like a charge.

Grabbing a hold of Malek's body using telekinesis, the ancient tossed the paladin up into the air before slamming him down hard against the ground.

Malek rebounded as if the blow was nothing, darting in close faster than Vorador anticipated, nearly slicing him across the belly had the vampire not side stepped in time.

"How long must our fight be prolonged?" Vorador asked, grabbing a hold of Malek's wrist and pinning him there. "Even you must be tired of it."

"Fatigue means nothing to those will no flesh to feel it." Malek grabbed forward, snatching Vorador's arm and yanking him back.

Torn from his footing the ancient vampire tumbled into a punch that smacked him square in the face from a chain mail fist.

Staggering back Vorador, brought his hand back before thrusting forward unleashing a powerful elemental spell.

Leaping up into the air Malek avoided the blast, before coming down hard; driving his blade down into the air. Geysers of green fire burst up through the earth, one of them coming dangerously close to striking the ancient vampire. Only by back flipping through the air did Vorador managed to avoid its searing touch.

Using his sword to bring himself to a stop as he scrapped through the earth, Sword regarded the sword in Malek's hand.

A suspicion was growing within him about that sword. He'd thought he'd seen it before… but there was only one way to tell if it was indeed the same blade.

Darting in close, the vampire slashed upwards attempting to use his own sword to strike at Malek's head, throwing all his might into the blow. As he expected the paladin brought his own sword to block the attack.

As the two swords met, the green fire engulfing Malek's blade slashed at the vampire's weapon. The metal bubbled, reaching boiling point almost instantly. The blade melted, dripping to the ground and Vorador was left unarmed.

Using the momentary confusion to his advantage the vampire charged a spell between his talons and smashed it into Malek's helmet. The blow of elemental power was enough to throw the paladin backwards several feet so he landed flat on his face in the dirt.

"I knew it." Vorador muttered as Malek hoisted himself back up. "I thought I'd seen that sword before." Malek paused to shake the dirt and dry mud intermixed with dried blood out of the chinks in his armour. "That is the same blade the Sarafan Lord wielded in the battle for Meridian. The very sword he used to strike Kain into a slumber for two hundred years."

"I care not who used this sword before me." Malek replied dryly. "As long as it is capable of striking the both of us down, it matter not."

"The both of us?" Vorador repeated. "You mean to kill yourself as well?"

"Death would mean nothing for me at this point. Had I the Reaver Blade, I would fall upon it and allow my soul to be consumed. Rather that than return to the eternally cold abyss of the Underworld.

Lord Sabre told me this sword sears a man's soul, burning it as if it were flesh. I will fall upon it, hoping my soul destroyed, should I face defeat." The helmet turned with a loud scrapping of metal against metal. "But I intend to win. I intend to see your head removed for one final time and maybe then, the flesh you and Mortanious took from me might be restored."

At the back of the Sarafan army the scouts were raving about the ground opening up and swallowing anything that fell into it. Their stories told of the ruined city of Avernus plunging into the depths of the earth and the green sickness affecting the sky bleaching up from that same abyss.

The Generals might have dismissed them as lunatics had they not been disturbed by the strange sky above them.

One by one, moving into the ruined city streets came the long forgotten and unspoken. Appearing , materializing out of the rift in the city they manifested. The race almost forgotten by the world.

Py'tor pulled off his helmet and gazed out at the world with his glowing green eyes.

"Is this a dream, my lord"? One of the Hylden Soldiers of House Terra asked him.

"Not in the slightest." Py'tor replied. "In fact, this is more real than we've ever been in centuries." He knelt down and picked a handful of dry dirt off the ground. He let it grunt through the fingers of his gauntlet, falling down to cloud at his feet. "Its gone. Its finally gone."

As if remembering something, he turned to face the rift as more and more Hylden began to emerge out of it.

"The demons are right behind us!" Y'alp declared, nearly racing out with her warriors right behind her. Almost immediately, a Thunder Demon soared out of the rift with lightning burning between its pincer like limbs.

Without mercy it grabbed at dozens of Hylden electrocuting them on the spot and in some cases reducing them to piles of ash.

With a loud bellowing sound the Black thunder Demon with had dogged their retreat emerged, followed by over a dozen fire demons.

"We are nobodies pets anymore." It stated, flames leaping up from between its massive teeth, highlighting its skull like face. "Destroy them all! Human, Vampire and Hylden alike… let them all burn!"


	53. Boss 4: Election part 10

Havoc clashed with Gaunt's sword and sparks flashed into the air, highlighting both combatants as they fought down the stairs. Ewoden was gaining ground, forcing Gaunt back down the stairs until the two of them emerged out into a long hallways with a high ceiling and torch-lit walls.

The floor was carpeted and torch chandeliers hung from the ceiling on ropes.

Through the stained glass windows on the former knight's left hand side the chaos in the streets could easily be seen. Fire was spreading through the buildings as the Sarafan sorcerers, warned in advance of the rebellion made their well planned counter attack. The screams of dying men and woman were echoing even this far to the fortress.

Swinging Malice around in a wide arch Ewoden tried to catch Gaunt on his left. The Sarafan blocked the attack with the black bracer on his left arm before shoving Ewoden back with a solid kick.

Drawing arcane roots in the air, Ewoden fired a spark of elemental lightning at his opponent. Gaunt was struck full on and sent rolling backwards across the floor a short distance before he righted himself.

"Magic won't spare you god's justice, vile mutation!" He stated, before charging again with a thrust from his large sword.

Ewoden dodged the parry, before bringing both of his axes down hard on Gaunt's exposed flank. With a cloud scrapping and tearing the metal armour down the knight's left hand side tore open, leaving a large gash. But weapons did not penetrate the chain mail underneath and Gaunt was free to swipe his sword sharply to his right.

Unable to dodge in time Ewoden was struck across his chest. The plate armour and animal skins managed to absorb most of the blow's ferocity but the blade still bit into him, the silver the sword was made from bushing his flesh and the blood boiled on construct.

Ewoden gagged, spitting out red but still managed to push himself away.

Gaunt drew back, taking the opponent to catch his breath and to admire his opponent's wound.

"Above average melee skills, competent magical abilities and surprisingly the endurance to take quite a bit of pain…" He commented as the former knight refused to fall to his knees despite the nasty looking gash in his side. "If I were to hazard a guess, I would dare to say you've had some Order issue training."

Ewoden turned his head and spat, leaving a red stain on the carpet before staring his opponent directly in the eye.

"Not my finest moment." Before Gaunt could react, Ewoden reached down and grabbed the carpet in front of him. With a sharp tug he tore it out from under the knight's feet. Loosing his footing Gaunt toppled backwards, the weight of his armour causing him to fall onto his back.

Ewoden drove in close, swinging both axes over his head and bringing them down in an attempt to slam them into Gaunt's face. The Sarafan rolled to the side narrowly missing the strike, before back flipping to his feet and landing a kick into the former knight's chin.

Staggering back Ewoden tried to recover himself as Gaunt charge at him. Ewoden was tackled and drive to the edge and almost out a window.

Pressed against the glass, the former knight could see the battlements below. Sarafan soldiers started running out of the towers like screaming madmen before a moment later, the tower roof broke open and two wolf like beasts burst into the light of the full moon, shining out through the strange green clouds in the sky.

One chestnut brown, one oily black; they slashed and snapped at each other sending blood trailing along after claws and teeth.

Obelisk and Kal were fighting a duel to the death. The blood frenzy Ewoden had also experienced in wolf state.

Kicking Gaunt off him, Ewoden swung Havoc down sharply despite the pain the wound in his side. The axe struck the shoulder armour and sank deep, the tip breaking through the chain mail. Blood burst out through the armour and Gaunt cried out, staggering back to the centre of the hall.

Taking the opportunity, Ewoden tackled him and the two of them slammed into a wooden door on the far side. It broke open and they stumbled down along down another flight of stairs, falling down together amassing into the wall several times before crashing with a loud clatter of armour into an unforgiving stone surface.

"What in the name of?" A voice demanded. Ewoden managed to look up despite the pain in his body and the blurred vision. Standing by another open door was a small man with thinning ginger hair and a shallow face. Ewoden recognised him instant. It was the doll maker, the magician whom Sabre had had bring Malek back from the dead.

Seeing them both, he yelped before darting back in through the door slamming it after him. There was a loud clunking sound as it was bolted from the far side.

Ewoden tried to pick himself back up, be was forced back to the floor when Gaunt's boot slammed down on his back. Feeling two of his ribs crack Ewoden cried out in pain.

Scowling, Gaunt lifted Ewoden up by his hair and tossed him hard against the wall. The Sarafan was stunned as well and so the clumsily lunge he made at Ewoden missed and his sword sank into the stone sending dust flying.

"What's going on out there?" The king of Willendorf asked as the little man hurried back to the alchemy room laboratory

"Just a short scuffle the guards sire." Elezier lied casually. "We needn't let it interrupt the proceedings."

The king put on a pensive expression and turned away from him.

"Very well." He sighed.

Chained to the wall nearby was Alicia. Her gown was gone, torn from her body leaving her barley covered by the ragged remains. Her hair was a mess down her shoulders and she had bruises all over her body with cuts down her arms and legs.

The princess was slumped in the chains almost lifelessly but an inner fire her tormentors had not yet beat out of her yet still somehow managed to make itself known in the expression on her face.

The king had forbade any of the guards from raping her, but she was still a prisoner and as such they had not treated her well. Though kicks, punches and slashes with the tip of a sword her father had watched with a vacant expression although the difficulty of it was reflected in his eyes.

"Can you save her soul?" The king asked without looking back.

"Damnation is not something easily tossed aside." Eleizer replied. "I will do what I can to save her to the corrupting evil already besetting her." The king sighed out through his nose and closed his eyes.

He did not notice however was Elezier regarding the captured princess with a hungry, almost deranged expression as if his thoughts lingered on something quite provocative.

Alicia just closed her eyes and was outwardly silently. Inside however she was screaming. She was screaming in terror.

She was screaming in pain.

But most of all she was screaming for help.

And that scream did not go unheard.

Like a distant roar it crept up into another's mind, building in strength until it became an undeniable call.

"Alicia…" William whispered as he knelt on the floor of the ancient council chamber.

* * *

--

Ewoden drew a complex set of runes in the air with two fingers, the effort showing on his face before he unleashed the most powerful fire spell he had ever attempted. The explosion shook the ground and Gaunt was thrown back by the sheer force of it to smash into a wall, his sword spinning from his grip to clatter against the ground. Breaking through it the knight was sent flying into an adjacent chamber.

It was a chapel where the officers of the order could pray privately. It had a few wooden seats and a podium without a book on it.

Gaunt shook the brick dust out of his armour before righting himself, smoke rising from patches of blackened metal.

Ewoden dropped to his knees, extremely out of breath and hardly able to maintain the strength necessary to keep hold of Havoc and Malice.

Thus weakened he could do nothing to defend himself as Gaunt grabbed him by the animal skins underneath his armour and tossed him back into the chapel to slam hard against the stone podium knocking it over.

Retrieving his sword, Gaunt turned to face the former knight as he struggled to get back up.

"You… you are a perversion." The Sarafan declared, pausing for a moment to wipe the blood away from the edge of his lips with the back of his hand. "Not merely by your curse do you profane, but by your history also. You turned your back on the Order and accepted the dark, rejecting all that was good."

"If you're going to kill me, then kill me." Ewoden snapped. "At least spare me the hypocrisy." With a great degree of effort he managed to make it up to his feet. "I know from experience that the Sarafan could not be further FROM all that is good. You are worse than the vampires you claim to protect the people from." Adopting a fighting stance with an axe in both hand, he defied his opponent. "Tthe only thing they really needed protection from… was you!"

Crying out in anger Gaunt charged, swinging his sword around. Ewoden blocked it with Malice before he swung Havoc forward, striking Gaunt on the helm. The metal cracked and bent and had Gaunt not pulled back at the last second the axe would have struck him in the face.

With an angry yell, he pulled the damage piece of armour off letting his hair fall down before charging in close again.

"You.. You shape changers and blood drinkers would call US perverse?" The Sarafan asked as they clashed. "You commit blasphemy by your mere existence. You're an affront to man and beast alike and I will take great pleasure in restoring the perfect, pristine order of god!" The three weapons, double axes and sword met in mid air and a power struggle began.

"Imagine it. No more mutation… no more of this heretically mentioned 'evolution'… simple creation for all time."

"That's not how nature works, you fool!" Ewoden snapped and in that moment he let his guard down. Gaunt was instantly through his defences, slashing both axes aside leaving Ewoden completely unarmed.

Before the former knight could blink, Gaunt slammed his sword through the flesh in his hip. He'd been aiming for the chest but Ewoden's instinctive agility acted on its own, diverting the stab wound from anything major.

That did not mean however that it did not hurt like hell.

Ewoden screamed in utter pain, writing in agony.

The Sarafan drew his sword back and grabbed the former knight by the front of his armour and tossed him with all the strength he had up into the ceiling.

Ewoden's body hit it so hard that the ceiling broke with the collision. Wood, brick and tiles fell down leaving a roof with a shaft of moonlight coming down through.

Ewoden rolled a short distance before coming to a stop, a pool of blood slowly growing around him.

"And what could you, a mutant, possibly know about Nature?" Gaunt demanded, clenching a fist with a loud metallic ringing that echoed out through the chapel.

The former knight growled, clenching his teeth against the pain and pushed up on his arms, pausing to spit out a mixture of blood and spit.

The wound in his hip was made enough but it had been made by a silver weapon and that felt like salt was constantly being rubbed into it.

But Ewoden was no stranger to pain.

"I was born a slave." He hissed. "I never knew my father and my mother died unable to carry on the work. I spent my youth in the mines, toiling day and night for this countries aristocracy.

Rescued from that existence by Moebius himself, I was trained as a Sarafan soldier and in amongst your ranks I learnt just how depraved your order was.

Drawing from that history I know that no elite, least of all yours, is meant to rule." Slowly he started to try to pick himself back up, the blood staining the animal skins and dripping off his armour. "Like all the Empire's throughout history you're dynasty is going to come crumbling down for that is the natural order of change." The former knight reached up and unclipped the straps holding his breast plate to him. The metal fell away with a loud clattered exposing his chest. Then without equal disdain he tossed the animal skins away.

Gaunt did not understand why his opponent would so willingly expose his heart. Suspicious, he gripped his sword tighter.

"You speak of our perversion, yet you would force nature to obey your ideals.

That is something I draw the line at." Ewoden carried on, removing the bracers on each arm and dropping them to the ground. "Nature follows no rules, no order or guidelines. It grows, and evolves, never one moment the same. That is what I learned merely by looking at it.

You can not command nature." The former knight was now naked from the waste up. Spreading his arms out side he looked Gaunt right in the face. "Just like your Order can not command me. Not anymore!" Then deliberately he stepped backwards into the shaft of full moon light pouring in through the hole in the ceiling.


	54. Boss 5: Kain Vs Kain

There was nothing I could have done to prevent the two Soul Reaver's from clashing. Had I not used my own sword to block the swing, the Reaver my former self wielded would have sliced me down the middle.

As soon as the two blades met, the rippling effect of temporary distortion smashed into the air. That uneasy feeling of imminent change, undeniable and iron clad was so strong it took all my concentration to ignore it.

There were now Two Raziel's and two Kain's here. Amplified by the Reaver the temporary distortion had to have been phenomenal.

"Get back you fool!" I declared, swinging my leg forward in a kick that knocked my younger self away from me. He staggered back a few paces, keeping hold of his Reaver tight. "Have you any idea what you're doing?"

He did not answer. He kept his unblinking gaze fixed sourly on me.

"What in the name of hell are you doing here? You should be fighting the Sarafan with the clans in the north."

Again he did not reply. Instead he lifting his broadsword and held it tight by his chest as if he intended to swing it.

"I don't want to kill you."

At this, his smirked.

"Of course you don't." He stated a little too merrily. "If you kill me, you cease to exist." He started forward, step by small step. "I know who you are."

That was not a hard deduction to be honest. We had the same hair, the same eyes and roughly the same height although I had gained something of a more noble stature during my evolution.

My younger self, at this time, had his white skin beginning to turn pale green and the ridge of horns emerge on his forehead. It was undeniable that we were extremely similar.

"If you know who I am then why are you doing this?" I asked him just before his Reaver swung around. Dodging the swipe by side stepping, I parried away another attempt before leaping back to moderate safety.

"The voices." He declared, stopping for a moment with a sudden panicked look on his face. "Every day and every night, never ceasing not even for a moment; a restless barrage of voices, all screaming at me and I can't make them stop!" There was something in his eyes that gave me the impression of utter terror. "They all declare; you killed me Kain, you killed me."

Suddenly he turned on me again, sudden determination flooding into him.

"I have to bring them appeasement; I have to give them what they want." He pointed the tip of his Reaver towards me. "They want Kain… and that's precisely what they'll get." He clutched the hilt with both hands; tensing himself and sprinting forward. "They get YOU!"

As he charged at me, I could hear the amused cackling of the Elder in the air.

This was a battle that was over before it started. How could I possibly hope to defeat him when if I did, I would be erased from history?

All I could do was parry away his strikes with my own blade.

I did not understand how this could be happening.

This was an event that was not in my memories, new or old, recreated by the rewriting of history. Of these voices he spoke of, I knew nothing. History says I was fighting the clans to forge my empire and according my memories, that was what I should be doing.

This was not the only thing to change however. The third rise of the Sarafan was something I did not remember either, nor the druids or indeed the Serloi Werewolves. It was as if history had been completely altered and I alone had been left oblivious to it.

"If you do this then you damn yourself." I told him but he didn't listen. Swinging his Reaver around in an arch he attempted to clash me across the middle. I blocked it, before parrying forward trying to disarm him.

Each and every time our two blades met I could sense Raziel's own conflict.

It was a conflict both physical and emotional for Raziel not only clashed with another version of himself trapped within the sword but with his future. A ravenous creature, driven insane by century upon century of entrapment; unable to form coherent thought anymore. Unable even to remember its own name, let alone its past all this spirit knew was its ravenous hunger.

This was the future Raziel was still faced with, a possibility of eternal insanity and damnation.

The two Raziel's clashed whenever our sword blades met, striking out at each other each attempting to both attack and defend at the same time; the struggle manifesting as the exchange of energies.

I had the physical advantage. I was stronger, faster and more evolved. Whenever he got too close to striking me, I could fade through his blade in my mist state to avoid it. Also, my Reaver was augmented by the elemental powers it had obtained along its journey and it maintained control over such energy by having a sane captive sprit within.

That advantage however meant nothing in this battle.

"Well Kain, can you grasp the beauty of this?" The Elder God announced with a stark laugh into the recesses of my mind. "While you face your unaccountable past, Raziel faces his undeniable future."

My younger self darted in close, nearly driving the tip of his blade through me. I dodged the attack and swung back out of the way.

I could not afford to let this happen. If either of us died…

Still with the Reaver in my grasp, I clenched a free fist and disappeared into the midst of a translocation spell. My essence moved through space a short distance, transporting itself away from the ancient Norse ruin deep underground and back up to the Hylden settlement above it.

"Running are we, little vampire?" The elder asked, all of his eyes infesting the submerged settlement opening as I manifested. "Abomination and a coward?"

I ignored him. Scooping the bronze canister from my back I kept on running, not wanting to give my younger self a chance to catch up.

I could already here the screeching of the bats that made up his form of flight as they flew up the shaft away from the ancient site of the Orrery. Nothing else mattered here besides the cure.

Once it was released, the Elder Gods contingency plans and the Sarafan Order would crumble around them.

All I had to do now was find the device that opened the canister, the device that Vorador assured me would be here.

"Run, Kain, run." The Elder's voice chuckled in the darkness. "It's quite amusing."

It took quite a bit of self control not to angrily retort but as I hadn't the time nor the means, I decided not to dignify it with a response.

More than once, the Elder tried to impede my progress by dragging massive iron doors across my paths with his tentacles. Each and every time I slashed him back using the Reaver; his demonic green lifeblood made by the souls of those he had consumed spluttered out to stain the floor and scream in pain.

These tricks and traps were never meant to stop me, only to slow me down, to give my younger self enough time to catch up. That was a battle I could not win.

It was by either chance or fate that I ended up where I needed to be. Bursting through a large set of bolted doors I came running out into a large square chamber. The ceiling was a mesh of pipes all interconnected, running alongside one another like a nest of twisted serpents with valves along the walls.

All the pipes led to the back of the room were they culminated at the base of a tremendous machine. Two large, claw like, appendages hung by metallic limbs from gaps in the ceiling. A flat panel stood just before it, presumable as some means of controlling it. What gave the machines purpose away was the pedestal standing just between the two machine arms.

On its top was a flat surface with an engraved slot which happened to be the exact same size and shape as the canister on my back.

Against all odds I had found it, the opening device.

About turning, I seized both sides of the door with telekinesis and pulled them sharply back into position with an echoingly loud thud. It would not stop my pursuer, that I knew all too well but it would slow him down.

I rushed over to the machine and quickly placed the canister in its slot. As I worked trying to figure out the machines controls I tried to run this through in my mind.

I did not understand what could have changed so produce so drastically different a future from the one I knew. The events before this grand endgame started happening did not seem to me like enough to alter events this much.

Suddenly there was a loud clanking sound at the door. My younger self had arrived.

As the tip of his Reaver tired to pry the door open I figured out the complex ancient Hylden controls.

With a soft whir the large mechanical arms came to life, moving step by step down from the positions near the ceiling towards the pedestal. Simultaneously they took hold of both ends of the canister.

My mouth went dry at this point.

If this worked the way if was supposed to then it would be the beginning of something so grand and wonderful it transcended imagination.

The metal claws got to work, twisting this way and that still with each end of the canister is their grasp, as if they were unscrewing it like a cork in the top of a wine bottle.

Before they could finish the door flung open and Kain... that is the younger me… marched in.

"I know you're no idiot." I told him, about facing with my own sword tightly in my grasp. "This is suicide!"

"It is of no use." Raziel told me telepathically. "Both of them, your younger self and my older self have been driven insane."

"But that's impossible." I insisted despite this. "If he were insane, I would be too."

"Is there a crack in your omniscience?" The Elder asked with a humoured tone of voice, mirroring the words I had spoken to Moebius before killing him for the last time.

As if to confirm his madness, the younger vampire charged at me with a battle cry; his Reaver ready for a deadly swing. Instinctively I brought my own sword up for a block.

Before either could meet, the machine behind me gave off a loud hiss and vented a thick cloud of steam.

Both of us stopped in our tracks, turning to the machine which was now hissing steam. With a loud clank, the metal hands folded back taking the skin of the canister away with them.

"This is it!" I began with a sudden trembling feeling coming over me. Time seemed to slow down, every second seeming like an eternity.

And then, just as my hope reached its peek; the outer shell moved away to reveal that inside this canister was another container; a smaller one by undoubtedly made of the same indestructible metal.

The thick sadistic, mocking laugher of the Elder god stung my ears.

With renewed fervour, my young self charged.

I barely even noticed him. All I could hear was that invertebrate's sickening laugh, mocking me and my efforts.

It sent me into a blind rage.

"Kain, NO!" Raziel cried out.

Before I could stop myself, I parried away by younger selfs attack with ease and then I slammed the Reaver forward in such fury that I broke through all his defences and stabbed him through the stomach.

All of the Reaver's energy discharged in one sudden burst, washing over my former self and burning him as if by fire.

Gagging forward, he collapsed onto my sword blood flying from his mouth. He lost the grip of his own sword hilt, the remains of which clattered to the ground.

Realizing what I had done, I sharply drew the sword back out of him. Without its support, he collapsed to his knees, barley able to keep himself up.

History audible groaned, sensing its path had been blocked.

"YES!" The Elder God declared in absolute triumph. "History has once again changed. All that you have ever done or wherever meant to do has been nullified!"

His echoing laugher resonated throughout the empty hallways as I stood over my dying past, cut short by my own hand.


	55. The reforming of history

As if it had been dealt a physical blow, history itself groaned in pain as the sequence of events it had sat pretty with for eternity changed.

The Elder God's thick laughter hung in the air as I stood there, sudden and undeniable horror creeping into my soul at the sight of my younger self, lying there dead. History was changing. Within moments, my destiny would be sealed. This was where I would die, nothing I had done beyond this point would have happened. My empire would cease to exist. The changes I had brought about by travelling back through time would be nullified as well.

A thought made itself known to me. If I ceased to exist in my future state, then didn't that mean that this event would be avoided too? How could I kill my past self if my future self did not exist?

That hope was quickly shattered when I realised that I had fallen into the Elder God's obvious trap. I had been ensnared in an eternal paradox.

If I killed myself then I ceased to exist, then that event never happened; but then would because I would repeat it again.

History could not handle that recurring cycle and to counter it, it would erase the cause of the paradox from existence.

I was that cause.

"Goodbye Kain." The Elder laughed as the screeching and moaning of history derailed reached its peek.

This was an onslaught I could not hope to evade, to bear or even to ward off. All I could stop was stands there and let oblivion take me.

All across Nosgoth, even those fighting had to stop and stare up at the world around them as the roar of history; encountering a paradox it could not tolerate. The Hylden battling for their lives against the demons paused briefly as reality warped and bent and even the demons themselves seemed put off by this sudden change.

Clashing swords Vorador and Malek parted for an instant, both puzzled by the shaking and trembling, before the two of them advanced again with their weapons meeting in a spray of sparks.

Far away on the apex of the ancient citadel of the Apostles, the Hylden T'kral looked upon the one person he never expected to see again.

"U'mon?" He asked taking an uncertain step forward. The Hylden seer nodded once. "You... you can't be… you died."

"No." She told him softly. "I was merely beyond the boundaries of Nosgoth when the Pillars were erected. I was outside of the array." T'kral approved, footstep by cautious footstep.

"You escaped the demon dimension." He said, stating the obvious. "Your form is still fare."

The Seer looked for the first time in centuries upon the face of her brother. Gone was the handsome features which had attract so many, even vampire maidens, in days long since past. His long brown hair was gone, his face shrivelled and skull like and his eyes once sea blue now a sickly green.

His body was now thin and skeletal, thin to the bone almost lacking any muscle at all.

"And yours will one day be…with time." She told him. "But for now, please I need your help. The taint of the demon dimension still haunts our people. The madness must be driven back."

"Madness?" T'kral asked with a suddenly quickening to his features. "It was the madness that helped us survive. It was the madness that kept us going and it still be the madness that gives us our revenge." The glow in his eyes seemed to intensify. "Perhaps at a time yet to be determined the madness will go, but for the moment we need the madness."

"The madness will keep us in a prolonged circle for all eternity." The seer told him, an element of anger reaching into her voice. "It is a circle of hate. It has to be stopped."

Without warning, the roar of history around them intensified reaching a horrific peek.

Archon, clutching his bleeping shoulder; gazed up into the sky with a partly puzzled expression on his face.

"What is this now?" T'kral demanded.

"Merely…." The Seer started. "The Grand Alteration."

Preparing myself for limbo, I stood there in silence.

Nothing happened.

"What?!" The Elder demanded. I risked opening an eye and observed the situation around me.

The roar of history was still echoing around me, the perception of reality shaking in temporal flux but nothing had altered.

"This is impossible!" The Elder's voice proclaimed. "How can you still be here?!" There was a fair question.

Something **_had_** changed… but my existence was not it. Something felt… perhaps not strange but rather…. different.

"He is still here because the Kain still standing is not the Kain lying on the floor." A voice replied.

I looked back to the sudden intruder, a slender canine shape sitting in the shadows nearby. A pair of pure blue eyes stared at me from out of the darkness. It was the wolf, the guardian of Midgard; the creature we had encountered in the Seroli ancient temple.

"This is the Scion of Balance. The creature still dying is Kain the disruptor. They are not the same entity." It carried on.

"You can not apply such warped logic to the streams of time!" The Elder protested loudly. "Regardless of who you consider him to be now, at one time he was the disruptor! One can not exist without the other!"

The wolf laughed.

"Do you not recall the words of the Seroli seers? The ancient Scion prophecy you feared so much?" The Elder went silent but his distain and anxious fear was obvious. "The Lupine gospels reads; One wielding blood and soul shall rise and be one and not of time.

The Scion of Balance exists outside the influence of time, just like yourself. The only thing you succeeded here today was the weakening of your own wheel. Time is changing and you helped to bring it about."

"NO! I will not permit this!!" The Elder screamed in outrage and the ground beneath our feet started shaking.

"Complain all you want but there can be no denying it now." The Wolf replied. "He is the Scion of Balance. The counterpart they proclaimed would one day destroy you. Your end of times has come."

"Be silent you mongrel!" The Elder screamed and the metal floor bent up and a tentacle burst up through the floor. It came crashing down towards the wolf, who simply closed his eyes before his form vanished and the tentacle ended up smashing into an empty spot.

As the tentacle slashed around, I brought the Reaver across sharply, cleaving the sickening slimly flesh with the blades tip. As the green blood poured out I heard the screams of the captive souls within scream in anguish. The Elder seemed to hiss in mute rage as his limb slid back in through the hole and disappeared, retreating back into the shadows.

The wolf reappeared nearby and softly padded its way over to the side of my former self still lying on the floor.

"He has not yet joined the wheel." He stated before lowering its head and nudging the vampire's face with the side of its wet nose. "Come Scion, there is something you must do here." The animal's gaze glanced off towards the blade in my hand. "You as well Raziel."

Raziel projected his transparent form nearby, managing a surprised look.

Deciding that I trusted his wolf more than the Elder I did as he asked and came close, kneeling down beside the limp body of my former self.

The wolf was right. It was a small but there was some spark of life left in him. Was this why I had been spared? No... that couldn't be it. If it was, the memories of the event would have written themselves into my mind.

"The Elder is a creature whose mind exists simultaneously in past, present and future." The wolf explained. "When you were cured of the corruption that plagued you your whole life and became the prophesied hero, the Scion of Balance, you were granted similar protection from time.

History could warp into parody of itself and you would remain untouched."

Was that how the Sarafan had risen to power again, in contradiction to the history I knew, without me knowing it? Did the role of Scion of Balance protect me from all alterations in history? Was I now fixed, outside times influence?

It was too incredible to imagine but it explained so much.

"His life is slipping away." The wolf stated, glancing down at my former self. "This is the end. When he ties, the tether binding him to the pillar of Balance will be broken and the burden truly lifted from you.

Once he has died, you will be able to face Sabre in the Election with an equal claim to the position as Guardian.

This is the death of the creature who damned Nosgoth to the history it knows."

"But that is me. If he dies, the events that led up to my becoming the Scion of Balance will be voided." I looked the wolf in the face. "And they are just as important as my existence. If they do not transpire then that can be almost as damaging as my own death."

Despite lacking the facial muscles for it, the wolf smiled cruelly.

"That is were destiny begs to differ. Can you not feel it around you? Changes are still taking place, history is being stained." I glanced up. The roar of history, obstructed by the paradox was still echoing in the air.

Suddenly however the roar changed from a sound of pain to a melody so beautiful I had to stop and listen.

The shift that came with this music was undeniable. It was as if everything, every aspect of existence had lurched to one side, away from the oppressive feeling I often got from it to something completely…. different.

Suddenly I realized what had happened. The course of history had been completely blocked by this event. It could not handle the paradox of my slaying my past self and it could not remove the irritant that caused the paradox in the first place as I now existed outside of time.

No longer was I a pebble. I was a dam, blocking the river completely.

"Time is resetting itself Kain." The wolf assured me. "Even before has this happened. To save itself from collapse, time is adapting."

"Adapting?" Raziel asked. "How can time adapt?"

"By altering its nature. This one act, this one paradox, has caused fate to become less…" The creature paused as if looking for the right word. "Less tyrannous."

He moved down to give the face of the vampire a nudge.

"Before he passes there is something that must be done. Raziel must assume his position."

"Excuse me?" Raziel asked blinking.

"Kain may exist outside of the influence of time but you do not." The wolf explained. "And your fate is interwoven with that of the Scion of Balance. Ones fate affects the other.

Kain has faced his dark past and won. Now you must face your dark future… the insane spirit you may yet still become."

Raziel's gazed fell down to the second Reaver, the one my younger self had been using, the blade containing another version of himself. The insane spirit, the ravenous deranged future Raziel had thus far managed to avoid.

"You must confront and defeat it." The wolf told him. "Face the demon. Kain, the two swords…." I glanced over towards the weapon my younger self had dropped. The Reaver, its older self, had been chipped in the battle. "Take your own weapon, lay it down beside the other."

I did as instructed, the two Reavers past and future lay beside one another.

"Raziel…" The Wolf started. The projected form just nodded once.

"Yes I know." He replied before he disappeared. A short flash of light erupted as the spirits within both sword almost leapt at each other; clashing in the air.

One Raziel still retaining sanity, the other deranged and insane. As they clashed, I watched as the two blades began to edge closer to one another.

Then as if they were liquid the two swords merged, becoming one whole.

The paradox of this did not seem to bother the adapting history either. In fact it sung its appraisal as if it approved.

Was this the true mission of the Scion of Balance? To recreate time itself? To recreate the nature of existence?

When the two swords had become one, I gazed down upon the newly re-forged weapon. Its skull like lit gazed out at me with its double set of horns and the long curved blade which had lengthened slightly.

"It is done." The wolf stated with an unmistakeable sigh of relief. "Time is still in flux, the two aspects become one.

Now Kain, it is your turn." I looked at the wolf with a half worried expression. "Raziel has performed his task here and now you must do yours. You must take your own place."

"This changes nothing!" The Elder's voice angrily started from the abyss as I laid my hand across the chest of my former self and history, redefining itself, began the merger. "Empower this one vampire as much as you like. He will still not prevail. He can not best me. I am eternal. I am mighty! I am undeniable!"

The wolf simply looked down at the darkness with a sly expression.

"And so he is."


	56. Boss 4: Election part 11

The long howl broke through the night air, long and constant. The Sarafan manning the defences of the citadel paused and look up. The full moon silhouetted the towers and spires of the fortress and as the howl continued, the moonlight seemed to grow even brighter.

A moment later, the brick and mortar around the chapel broke open and Sir Gaunt was sent flying out down towards the battlements. Grabbing a hold of a flagpole on the way down he prevented himself from crashing into the ground. Flaring up, he stare at the dark shape that shot forth from the hole after him; leaping through the air until it landing on the nearby battlements.

Spreading its wide forearms out, claws spread the werewolf howled again. It was a huge bi-pedal creature with a long bushy tail and short chestnut brown fur, the eyes as bright as moonlight, its claws and teeth razor sharp, highlighted by the glow from the moon. The fur on the top of its head was more like hair, remaining in the same style as its human form.

It stared Gaunt down and drew its lips back over his teeth, snaring loudly.

"What are you idiots waiting for?" Gaunt called back to the Archers standing in the courtyard below and along the battlements. "Shoot it!" The archers raised their bows, drawing back arrows armed with silver heads.

The wolf flew out of the line of fire, leaving an after image in its wake; travelling at a tremendously fast speed. He leapt off the battlements, its body highlighted by the light of the full moon.

Before the first archer could draw his sword to defend himself; the claws lanced forward burying themselves through his armour and clenching themselves around his ribs. Displaying unrivalled strength the wolf tore the man's entire chest open, blood and intestines flying out into the night air.

The wolf did not even bother to feed. It ripped apart what was left with its bare claws before charging at the remaining Sarafan; snapping ones head clean off with a bite from its powerful jaws and tearing the limbs off to others.

One of them managed to hit it in the shoulder with an arrow but even the silver did not slow it down. It bit down through the man's shoulder, taking a bit out of the flesh and bone. The soldier was torn to pieces not long after that.

As the remains of half a dozen men lay around its feet, the wolf reared its head back and howls into the night; its muzzle and claws soaked wet with blood.

Gaunt swung his body across and used the flagpole as a spring board to propel himself to the battlements. Regaining his footing, he glanced down at the wolf that was standing there in the courtyard.

Its lips draw back to reveal its teeth; blood and saliva dripping from its mouth. It paused for a moment to reach around and grip the arrow stinking out of its shoulder. It barely even grunted as it removed the arrow lead, the flesh bubbling from the touch of the refined metal.

"So, just you and me is it?" The Sarafan asked, gripping the hilt of his sword. "Well so be it." Sliding down the side of the wall he reached the courtyard; sword held at the ready. "I'll earn my guardianship here and now!"

Gaunt charged first, drawing his sword back over his shoulder and tensing himself ready to strike a blow. As he swung, the wolf dodged the attempt before lashing out with its claws.

Gaunt was surpassingly fast in his armour and managed to avoid the swipe before letting go of his sword and with his free hand drew runes in the air; unleashing a powerful fire ball spell. The wolf slid back out to a safe distance and ducked as the fireball speed overhead and crashed into a cart setting it ablaze.

Gaunt fired a dozen more spells, alternating between lightning and fire; each one coming closer to striking the wolf as it darted out of the way. Seeing its change, the creature soared in close opening its mouth. Gaunt tried to defend but the teeth bite down sharply on his shoulder.

As soon as they pierced the armour, steam began rising from its teeth and lips and the Wolf let go; howling in pain clutching its muzzle in agony.

"Bitten off more than you can chew?" Gaunt asked with a sadistic grin. "You should feel flattered. I had this set of refined silver armour made especially for my fight with you!"

The wolf backed off, shaking the rising bubbles out of its mouth and using the opportunity Gaunt unleashed another massive spell; this time mixing the magic to fire a bolt of lightning and a fireball at the same time. The combined elemental attack hit the creature head on and sent it rolling back across the stone courtyard until it came to a stop at a hay cart.

There it lay as a short pile of straw fell on top of it. Slowly it rose, shaking the straw out of its fur.

"Come now you brainless animal, jump on my sword while you can." Gaunt declared, taking a hostile step forward with his blade brandished forward. "I'll be a lot quicker." The wolf narrowed its eyes at him but remained where it was.

Then he straightened itself up; squaring its broad shoulders. Slowly it brought a single claw up; holding it rigid in the air.

Gaunt made a frown in confusion. That confusion turned into alarm as the wolf started drawing runes in the air with that claw, each of those runes glowing bright blood red.

"How in?" He started but wasn't able to finish before the wolf fired a fireball spell at him. Forced to whether the attack, he brought his sword forward defensively and drew runes across its width and brought a shield into existence.

The fireball impacted the shield and dissipated upon it but using this time delay to its advantage, the wolf darted around Gaunt and charged him from behind. The knight tried to turn in time but wasn't able to avoid the claws as they slashed across his undefended back.

The Silver hurt the wolf but the blow hurt Gaunt more. The claws penetrated the armour and slashed through his chain mail shaking across the flesh. Gaunt cried out and staggered forward, blood seeping out and dripping down his armour to leave a small puddle on the ground.

Gautn whipped around, anger and rage clear in his eyes.

"You marked me…" He hissed. The wolf managed a short of sly smile. Howling in anger, Gaunt hurled himself forward and slashed at the creature with his sword. The wolf dodged the slash before lashing out with its claws. Gaunt dodged that as well before darting in so close the wolf couldn't avoid the stab quickly enough. The edge of the Silver blade caught it across its side and the skin spit and hissed like oil at the touch.

Carrying on his anger fuelled assault, Gaunt smashed his gauntlet back across the wolf's face knocking it sideways before his sword swung again, this time scoring a direct hit across the left arm. Blood flew forth and the creature howled, backing off several steps.

A massive wound had been opened up in its flesh, biting deep almost to the bone. Usually the wolf would have been able to heal such an injury within moments but the silver still reacting with his flesh kept impeding its efforts.

Slamming the tip of his sword into the ground, Gaunt freed both his hands and cupping them in front of his body he began culminating all the magic he had into one focused burst. He was not a mage or a wizard but like most Sarafan frontline soldiers he had been tutored in the basics of destructive magic and now he was using all that knowledge to channel the energy into a single blast.

A ball of magic appeared between his fingers, sparking with power before he unleashed it; sending the roaring attack straight at the wounded animal. It was magic devoted purely to destruction, wasting energy as it went but when it struck the explosion sent the wolf flying through the air until it crashed through the side of a wall and into the interior of the fortress.

It crashed through two walls before rolling out into the main loading area for the tithe transportations. Cut off from the moonlight, its fur began to recede back into the body. Its muscle mass began to disappear and the tail retracted back. Within moments, Ewoden was left his human self again.

Naked and unarmed, he was now at an obvious disadvantage. Staggered to his feet, holding his wounded arm he took stock of his situation. He was completely naked without any kind of weapon save for his own magic. Sweat was pouring from his body and within moments had left a puddle on the floor.

As Gaunt moved in through the hole in the wall, Ewoden darted behind one of the unattended carts out of sight. If Gaunt found him now he was good as dead.

"So, there was enough of a human mind left so you could use magic while in the form of a feral beast?" The Sarafan asked, moving across the rubble of the fallen wall.

He was out of breath and sweating hard as well but he was still the one with the armour and the sword. "I'll admit, our order has never seen that happen before. You're unique." Then his face contorted into one of loathing. "And for that you must die."

"And now we're seeing your true colours aren't we?" Ewoden asked, sliding from cart to cart trying to keep Gaunt guessing as to where he was. "There's no grand benevolent design here. You're order's agenda is nothing but conformity, where anyone who doesn't confirm to your ideal is brutally oppressed simply for the crime of being different."

"I do not have to justify my Order's nor my own actions to the likes of you." Gaunt replied, his eyes darting from right to left as he tried to catch a glimpse of his opponent. "As soon as differences creep into a society decadence soon follows. You're heretical revolution would have humans, werewolf's and vampires living together; the ultimate sin."

"What, peace? Peace is the ultimate sin?" Ewoden demanded. "I'm disgusting with myself that I was ever part of your order. You work with some horribly twisted logic."

"You're the only thing that's twisted here, beast!" The Sarafan knight shouted, finally sighting Ewoden's heal near the side of a wheel of a caravan. Charging, he leapt over the front of the caravan to confront the former knight.

Drawing runes in the air as fast as he could, all Ewoden had time for was a weak lightning bolt that struck Gaunt and knocked him out of the air; bolts of lightning sparking across his metal armour.

Running out to a safe distance, Ewoden started drawing more runes; building up for the most powerful spell he had ever used against an opponent. Before he could finish however, Gautn grabbed his sword and threw it like a javelin straight at him.

Ewoden only caught sight of it at the last second. Unable to dodge or even move, the blade slammed right through his body with the tip bursting out the far side.

A mixture of blood and saliva flew out of his mouth as he toppled backwards, the spell he was preparing flying off prematurely; crashing up through the roof breaking part of it open with a shaft of moonlight falling through.

Collapsing to the ground, Ewoden was in more physical pain then he had ever been. The bite of the sword through his side hurt but the burning affect of silver was far more potent. It took every ounce of willpower he had to regain enough wits to pull the weapon out of his hip. The blade slid out with a wet slapping sound before it clattered away, coming to a stop at Gaunt's feet.

The Sarafan bent down and picked his weapon back up while Ewoden scrambled to try and move but he had lost too much blood; his sight was blurring and his reactions were going to be far too slow.

"Warped logic is it?" Gaunt asked, using the last of his strength to lift his sword up. "Before long that logic will be all that governs this world and it shall be perfect, where the State defines what is good and just not just with mankind but with all creatures." He took a step closer and readied his blade for a final blow. "But you will not see that world." Thrusting forward he angled his sword to stab directly through Ewoden's heart. "Now die!"

Acting on instinct, Ewoden threw his hand forward in a defensive manner and as he did his fingers past through the beam of moonlight coming down through the hole in the roof. His nails became claws, deadly weapons lancing forward. Committed to his attack Gaunt could do nothing to defend himself.

Before Gaunt's blade could come close to striking Ewoden, the claws slammed through his armour and stabbed directly through his heart. Their tips burst out the other side with a spray of blood. With his strength faltering, his let go of the sword and its momentum carried it past Ewoden severing some of his hairs and catching the side of his ear.

Realizing what he had done, Ewoden blinked and drew his hand back and once it left the moonlight the claws reverted back to nails. Gaunt gagged, blood bubbling forth from his lips. He staggered back a few steps before collapsing to his knees.

"Brother…" The Sarafan muttered with the life fading from his eyes. "I failed you." Ewoden just looked away.

"I'm sorry." He muttered.

Gaunt collapsed to the ground, letting out one single sigh as he faded away. Ewoden didn't look at him. This man had had nothing but hatred for everything he was but Ewoden did not wish for his death, he had would never wish death upon anybody; even those as twisted in the ranks of the Sarafan.

However, the moment Gaunt had finished drawing his last breath Ewoden had left something profound. It was like a connecting, as if part of himself had been intermingled with something far grander than anything he had experienced before. That connection filled him with great strength and glancing down he concentrated his new strength into healing magic.

The large seeping wound in his hip which had shattered his pelvic bone began to close. He could feel the bones moving back into place and they became one whole again with a loud crunching sound that made Ewoden cringe.

"Ewoden?" A voice asked, but a voice within his own head. That was a voice he recognised at once.

"Sally?" He asked. That profound connection grew more joyful as a familiar presence focused in on him. There were others in that presence as well. He could sense William and Janos, but Sally was the one he joined his thoughts with.

It was like the Whisper, only a merging of thoughts and emotions on a far deeper level.

Three Pillars were now standing. The Pillar of Energy had risen first, followed by the Pillar's of the Mind and Dimension. Now the ground shook as the pieces of the forth Pillar began to pick themselves back up; refitting themselves together piece by piece before sliding into place. Their cracked and compromised appearance began to fade, the grey stone changing to become pure white. The Icon for the Pillar of Nature lit up near its base.

As if given an abundance of new life, the dark ground around the Pillar's churned with a sudden input of colour. The trees, dead for years, shook as if physically struck and the beginnings of green leaves started to push their way out.


	57. Redemption of the Hylden

"Peace? Forgiveness?" T'kral demanded. He stamped the blunt end of his scythe down on the ground and its ring was like the smack of a gavel. "You have gone soft. You know nothing of the horrors our people have had to endure in that rank abyss." He stepped forward angrily. "Forgiveness U'mon? For the vampires? Out of the question!"

"They have suffered just as much as we have." The seer argued. "And the ancients, the ones who put the mass majority of our kind in that terrible place have been dead for centuries." She gestured to the near comatose body of William.

The fledgling had evolved; a resulting of the taxing effort of opening the gate to the Demon Dimension. His skin was blue and his fingers and toes had changed to mirror those of the ancient vampires; his eyes transmuted to pure gold in colour.

"What crime has this generation of vampires committed on our people?" She asked. "This one even saved our kind… let us free after so long… does he deserve death for that act?

Or has his fate been determined by actions taken by his ancestors? Actions he had no say over?"

"You make a pretty argument my sister, but you forget that revenge has been the only thing that has kept our people alive. Without our need to get back at these creatures we would have never survived the demons, never mind tamed them. Do you expect us to put it aside so easily?"

"Do you not know the affects of the madness when you feel them?" The seer demanded. "Your judgement is being skewered by the long term affects of exposure to that place. You can not see clearly."

"I see well enough!" T'kral stated coldly, turning to face William with his scythe in hand. "I see my enemy. I see who must die!"

The Hylden swung his weapon down, the blade threatening to stab William through the back of the chest. The seer grabbed a hold of one end of the weapon, just stopping the curved blade before it struck home.

"This is not the way my brother. We can end this hate. We can end this pain. We can save both Hylden and Vampire here and now." She told him.

Angrily, T'kral whipped his weapon back and out of his grasp.

"Why?" He demanded. "Tell me why!"

The seer sighed out load and then looked at her deformed brother.

"Do you remember when we we're young? When we went swimming in the streams outside our settlement?" The muscle beneath T'kral's left eye seemed to twitch. "You had hair then and more muscle. You were kind, gentle…a poet and bard, not a murderer."

T'kral blinked once and swallowed hard as if holding back emotion.

"We can go back to that. You can be that innocent soul again. All our people can have their true souls back.

We don't have to wait for the affects to reverse themselves. We can restore ourselves, right here… right now."

T'kral stared his sister right in the face, his dried cracked lips pressed hard together and his fingers clenching around his scythe staff.

"You…. You have… peeked my interest U'mon." He admitted. "There is nothing I would like more, including the destruction of the vampires, than to return to those days.

If you can truly do this… then indulge me."

The seer managed a faint smile. She was right. Her brother was still somewhere in there, in amidst the insane and almost feral instincts he had taken during his imprisonment.

"All members of a race half a telepathic connection." She explained. "All humans have it. All vampires have it and of course… we Hylden have it." She stepped aside and gestured for T'kral to follow her. "The vampires can tap into this connection through their 'Whisper' technique as can some humans. It is this connection that will allow our people's sanity to return."

"How?" T'kral asked sounding a little impatient.

The seer widened her smile and looked down at the other fledgling vampire Sally.

"Me?" Sally asked suddenly noticing she was being stared at.

"Your dark gift is the gift of healing. You can heal deep emotional wounds of others with your mind." The Seer explained. "If you use your mind you can give back my people they're sanity." She took Sally's hand. "The war between Vampire and Hylden would finally be over."

Sally looked a little taken aback. Had this been what the vision she had received at Midgard meant?

She felt a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Archon stood there, the knife wound on his shoulder bandaged up.

"This is your task. This is something only you can do." He told her, a great deal of confidence in his voice. "Hate has to end. It has to end if Nosgoth is ever to be healed." He looked her right in the eyes. "I once gild through the cold nothingness that is the Spectral Realm, consuming any soul that escaped the Wheel of Fate and channelling their energy back to the master.

I was chosen to be his candidate for the Pillar of the Mind and given a human body. But even before that I knew I was not the one. I, like many of the masters Archon hunters, have swallowed the souls and felt their hate. Hate he inspired, hate he reveals in, hate that he feeds upon.

We can stand it no longer. End it… please."

Sally just swallowed hard before standing up, facing the Hylden male; whose glowing green eyes bore into her almost like hot coals.

"Do you not trust me brother?" The seer asked him.

Conflicting emotions were clear in the occasional twitching of his facial muscles.

"Just do it." He remarked angrily. Sally slowly reached within herself, calling upon the dark gift she had only so recently acquired.

She gasped.

She could sense the hate.

It was like incredibly bitter taste at the back of the throat only intensified. But it was causing so much pain. The Hylden race were in pain. Incredible pain. The hate was hurting them but the insanity caused by being so long in the demon dimension had made them blind to it.

It was clouding their judgement not just on their opinion on any other race then themselves, but on every decision they made.

She could sense them even now in their battle against the demons following them back. Their tactics were simply blind aggression, no strategy or tactics. The demons were tearing them apart in that mindset.

"I… I don't know if I can." She admitted to herself out load.

"Yes you can." A voice through the Whisper told her.

"Ewoden?" She asked with widening eyes.

"Yes… I'm here."

Miles away in Willendorf, half collapsed in exhaustion, Ewoden stood on a shadowy battlement watching the city slow consume itself as the revolution continued. Now that he had past his trail and officially become the Guardian for the Pillar of Nature, he found that he could easily use the Whisper despite the magic's the Sarafan employed around the city to prevent such communication.

"I know what misery hate can cause, on both sides. It has to end." He told her, keeping out of the light of the full moon. "I know you can do it."

"We both do." Archon added; ease dropping on the conversation telepathically.

Taking a deep breath, Sally relaxed her mind and then gently reached out with it and brushed her awareness against T'kral's.

The immediate affects were stunning.

T'kral gagged, stumbling forward several steps with wide eyes and mouth hung open. He was shaking violently and tilting his head back he screamed out load; clutching each side of his head.

"It's working!" The Seer declared. "Don't stop, keeping going!"

Sally did just that. Instead of a simply brush with her mind, she gathered her mental strength and struck hard against the insanity she could feel inside the Hylden male.

Like a great seal cracking, the affect spread through T'kral to the other Hylden' even those still emerging from the demon dimension. They felt the presence inside their minds, hacking away at their driving force; the insanity that kept them going. They cried out, clutching their heads and screaming.

"My mind!" Py'tor cried out, despite his large size crashing to his knees. "Who is that in my mind?!"

"Get out!!! GET OUT!!" Head of House Aer, G'tor was rolling around on the wet ground like an infant. His clansmen were just the same, writhing on the ground clutching their heads; but it was not pain they were feeling; only an instruction that felt them unable to think or feel.

Y'alp managed a few staggering steps before she collapsed onto her knees, unable to bear the intrusion; feeling the layers of her mind being stripped away bit by bit.

"What is this?" The Black Fire demon asked, watching the Hylden on the battlefield before him struggle like newborns. Even the other demons appeared confused, taking surprised steps back.

"I do not understand… what is happening?" A thunder demon asked in a raspy voice. A poison demon stepped forward and gave the Hylden nearest to him a nudge with the end of his mantis like claw. The Hylden did not respond at all. The male specimen just kept writhing there, clutching at his head.

"They are comatose." He told his fellow monsters, making a conclusion. Their Black Fire demon leader glanced back over his wide shoulder towards the still open gate. The Hylden coming through were toppling instantly over each other, unable to even keep their footing.

"They are defenceless now. We should strike them down!" A regular fire demon declared.

"There is no honour in that!" Another told it, gripping it hard on the shoulder.

"Honour?" The first replied. "Who is interested in that?" The monstrous beast stepped forward and reached down, preparing to grab up some of the Hylden.

"No you idiot don't!" Their leader declared too late. As soon as the demon took hold of a single Hylden, the mental healing affect that Sally was sending following through them spread into the demon and through him; to the others.

Feeling the extra burden, Sally gagged out and collapsed to her knees; tears wheeling up in her eyes.

"What… what is wrong?" Ewoden demanded, feeling her distress over the Whisper.

"The demons have come into contact with the Hylden." Archon replied, trying to help Sally up. "She's trying to heal both the Hylden and the Demons at the same time." He shook her back to some sort of awareness. "You can't heal that many. The demons have never been sane. You can not give them back something they have never had!"

"No…" She muttered. "I can do it. I can stop all this misery. I just… I just need the strength."

"Then take mine." Ewoden told her, reaching across the link and sending her his own spiritual power.

William said nothing. He simply sent her his own strength without any prompting and miles away, sensing the need to do so; Janos did the same. Their collective power following through her no, Sally recovered and then came at the insane minds of Hylden and demon alike.

"AGGH! No!" The Black fire demon cried out, collapsing backwards, barely supporting itself by a hand. "Get out of my mind! GET OUT!" As the demons and Hylden poured out of the gate, they stumbled over each other along into a giant pile.

"Too many… too many!" Sally hissed but kept on going anyway.

At that moment, across Nosgoth, the waters of the Lake of Tears swirled as if gripped in the midst of a storm. Light shone from the bottom of the lake before an object burst out of the waves and soured high into the air.

Instantly Sally felt strength unlike anything she had left before suddenly fill her, and even those sending her their own strength felt this sudden presence as well.

"Who…" Ewoden began in surprise.

"You know me." A powerful voice stated over the Whisper. William looked up sharply in alarm.

"Kain?"

The being floating about the waters of the lake was no quiet the ancient vampire who had come back from the future, nor the near fledgling vampire who had attempted to conquer Nosgoth. His skin was neither green nor white. Now it was a very pale sky blue. The demonic horns along the forehead were gone, leaving it smooth and round. His snow white hair fluttered back behind him, in-between two spread jet black wings lined with soft feathers.

In one hand he grasped the Reaver sword, blazing elemental power running down its curved blade and in the other he held the secondary container within which was the cure for the vampire race.

"I am the Scion of Balance." Kain stated, opening his golden eyes. "Take my strength. End this pain."

Armed with such accumulated mental power, Sally swept her healing gift over the minds in her grasp like a purifying tide swept clean a beach.

T'kral was first, the green glow in his eyes dying away and even parts of his body thickening as his skeletal like appearance fattened out with more muscle. Grasping out load, he blinked once before taking a deep breath.

The other Hylden all followed, one by one in a fast chain reaction they all looked up at the sky with sudden new wonder in their eyes.

"I…. I feel like I've just woken up from a nightmare." Py'tor groaned, hoisting himself up to a sitting position.

"I think we all have." Y'alp told him, looking down at her withered hands that in time would heal.

The demons, having never been sane, took a little longer but they succumbed none the less. The feral like minds faded one after the other and they took stirred as if waking from a dream.

"What… I… I do not…" The black fire demon began sitting back up.

"William." Kain announced. "Close the gate."

William nodded once and reached out from the top of the tower, closing his fingers together to form a tight fist. The rift in the ground groaned loudly once before it began to slid shut, the gates metallic covering coming together before clamping shut with a loud clanking that shook the ground for miles around.

"It… it is done." The Seer stated with tears in her eyes as her brother looked upon her.

"U'mon?" He asked her. "Why… why do I feel so tired all of a sudden?" He seemed barely able to keep himself on his feet and collapsed down to a sit. He was quickly followed by Sally, exhausted by the task of healing so many minds.

"You… you just need a nap." She told him lovingly.

Kain nodded once in approval.

Much had been accomplished and final victory, a chance to end the eternal bloodshed of Nosgoth forever was nearly within their grasp. Only one thing was left to do. He glanced down at the container with the cure for vampirism trapped within.

Only Vorador knew enough about this kind of Hylden technology and Kain was not compelled to ask the recently purified Hylden themselves.

Glancing towards the North, Kain spread his wings before souring forth; hoping he would not arrive too late.


	58. Boss 4: Election part 12

Surrounded by the corpses of vampire and Sarafan alike, the two ancient rivals continued their duel

With no weapon of his own, all Vorador could do was dodge as Malek lunged at him time and time again. Armed with the Hylden Blade, a weapon used by the Sarafan Lord to defeat Kain in the battle of Meridian.

Parrying forward, the paladin tried to impale the vampire and scorch him with green fire. Spiralling up in an intense acrobatic flip, Vorador avoided the attack and came down behind the paladin.

Waiting no time, he seized him from behind; holding his sword arm out to prevent him to retaliating with it.

"Tell me _old friend_…" Vorador hissed, holding Malek fast as he struggled to get free, his armour scrapping angrily against itself. "Where will it end? All of this madness? All of this… this misery and death?"

Malek's helmet half turned as if he was looking back over his shoulder.

"When we annihilate each other? When Vampire, Human and Hylden are all dead? When there is nothing left but corpses to populate Nosgoth? Is it the oblivion of death we all seek here?"

"And what, pray tell, is your plan to deal with the situation?" Malek asked hardly with a great deal of venom, gripping the sword and trying to pry his way out of Vorador's grip. "Vampires and Humans can not live side by side!"

"Yes they can!" Vorador retorted. "That intolerance is simple Sarafan propaganda that's been beaten into your head since you were a child!"

The vampire had not been expecting his words to have much of an affect but surprisingly Malek's attempts to free himself slackened slightly.

"Vampires were mortal once!" Vorador carried on. "I know you are aware of this. We can be again and once we are… then the war can end and we can all be free.

But the Order does not want this. It maintains its control through fear; fear of the 'vampire menace'.

If vampires are no longer a threat then the Sarafan have no legitimate reason to exist. Thus they would rather exterminate us than give us a chance to be free of the blood thirst.

God, Malek… this was true with the Original Order as well! You were its leader for years! You must have known this and yet you carried on?

How could you be at ease with that insight?"

"And what makes you think I knew?" Malek asked although sounding surprisingly annoyed at himself. "I'm sure I was aware of it on some level but to be perfectly honest, I did believe in the cause. As long I could kill the vampires I hunted nothing else mattered to me.

Moebius tutored me in the stories of the ancient vampires. He told me how they abducted mere children and turned them into monsters.

That was how he justified his part he played in the rebellion that gave birth to the Original Sarafan order." As he finished speaking a humoured tone came into his voice. "I think there's plenty of blame to go around."

Without warning he swung his helmet back; smacking it into Vorador's face forcing the vampire to loosen his grip and using that to his advantage Malek broke free of his grasp and swung his sword back in a fiery arch.

Its tips sank through the fabric of Vorador's clothes and into his flesh, burning his chest. It was only using his enhanced speed that Vorador was able to avoid a fatal strike.

Still it did scorch a deep scar across his chest; his flesh burning. It took all Vorador's will not to cry out. He did not want to give the Paladin the satisfaction.

"Perhaps you're right." Malek stated, turning to face the injured vampire. "Perhaps we favour war over peace.

At first our Order was a group of patriots who wanted to protect their children. In those early days the Sarafan had only the best intentions. Honour was our guide.

But I must confess you are correct in stating that we have lost sight of the Order's original goals.

It has become too corrupt, too focused on control. It has changed from a defender to a governor, a governor which uses its noble past as an excuse to exercise fascism.

Those are actions I will never condone."

Holding a hand to his wound and pressed his teeth hard together to will away the pain, Vorador took a few staggering steps back to a relative safe distance.

"Then why… why are you fighting for them?" He asked. The scorching of the fiery sword had sealed his wound and there was little bleeding but even a vampire's accelerated healing would have trouble dealing with such a scar.

"I am not." Malek replied. "I do not care about their ambitions. I merely went along with their strategies because I wanted to attend this battle. A battle where I knew you would present."

"So its revenge." Vorador muttered. "So all you want is my death?"

"I am simply here to settle our ancient feud." He replied. "And what better way to decide the Guardian of the Pillar of Conflict than be a fight to the death?!" With that Malek charged and parried his Sword forward.

Grasping a sword from the battle strewn ground around him, Vorador parried away the strike before moving in fast; gripping Malek's arm to stop him from using his sword before smashing his palm into the Paladin's helmet trying to knock it off.

It remained steadfast and retaliating, Malek grabbed Vorador's throat with his free hand and started squeezing; trying to crush his windpipe

In that moment a strange revelation past into Vorador's mind. Perhaps it was merely the lack of air but it was profound enough.

It was a moment of clarity, where the sudden truth was laid before him; naked and untarnished.

"Actually…" Vorador began despite being strangled. "I…I can think of a better way to decide it."

"Oh?" Malek asked feigning interest. "And what would that be?"

Without a word, Vorador unleashed an elemental spell at point blank range; discharging the magic directly into Malek's armour; sending him the Paladin flying back through the air until he crashed into the ground.

Vorador staggered back, breathing in hard and recovering a little as the paladin pushed himself up.

"We could fight. But what would be proved if we do? Only which of us is the better fighter and we do not serve the interests of the Pillar of Conflict in such a way.

Conflict is not merely a contest of skills or a vendetta's end."

Malek simply growled as he stood back up.

"The winner of this election will have to master Conflict, not only in the skills necessary to prevail in it but to master the causes of it as well. To understand conflict, to read and sense it and by doing so avoid it."

Then, shocking the Paladin, the vampire flooded his arms and sat down.

"And so I will not fight you."

From high above on the cliff face, Janos Audron watched what was happening with a surprised look on his face.

"Well that is certainly an unusual tactic." He muttered.

"What?" Malek demanded. "You can't just sit there and expect that I'm not going to strike you down!"

"Yes I can." Vorador replied looking at the paladin with an ironic smile. "Our long fight has been started by at the wounds we inflicted on each other." The smile faded away. "You killed my brides and your order killed my sire. I killed those wizards you were sworn to protect.

It's a self serving cycle of hate and there's only one way to end it." He paused long enough to take up a long deep breath. "I forgive you."

Malek just stood there.

"I will master the cause of our conflict. I forgive you for the deaths of my first brides. I forgive you for your Order's execution of my sire. I release you from blame."

Malek looked utterly stunned. He staggered back a few steps nearly dropping his sword in utter surprise.

"You… forgive… FORGIVE!!" The Paladin spat. "How dare you!!! No! I will not denied my revenge by this lacklustre performance! I have crossed the centuries and endured the Underworld for this!" He moved forward, casting his shield aside and gripping the Sarafan Lord's blade tightly with both hands. "Get up and fight! Or I will strike you down!"

"You are a knight Malek." Vorador reminded him. "Even Sarafan Knights, at least the old variation, have a code of honour.

You can not strike down an unarmed opponent."

"Honour?" Malek repeated. "My honour was shed centuries ago. I willingly cast it aside when I put myself on this path. My honour died with my flesh!"

"So let me ask you." Vorador started. "What would you do to get it back?" Malek continued to advance. "What would you… a proven knight, be willing to do to blaze his way to glory?

What will you, Malek the Paladin, be remembered as?

As a man who despite the many evils done unto him, retained his dignity and came to the aid of those who needed it. A hero?

Or perhaps will you be remembered as a butcher, a murderer who would run roughshod over anything placed in his way? A killer?

That decision will always be yours Malek."

Malek's advance slowed into a slow pacing before he stopped altogether, standing there in front of the ancient vampire; the green fiery glow of the blade illuminating them both.

"Well. Which will it be Paladin?" Vorador asked, looking past the weapon to the soldier wielding it. "Hero or villain?"

Malek's emotions were completely hidden from view. The helmet that served as his head did not show what he was thinking.

"But I think you should know." The ancient added. "Whatever you decide, you will not get your flesh back.

Removing a soul from its original vessel is easy enough with necromancy. Recreating one for it is harder, believe me I've tried.

And I know the enemy, the enemy of all races, well enough. He will not keep his word."

"We will!" Malek began. "He must!"

"Why must he? Once you have done what he sent you back for, do you really think that he's going to let you live?

No. Your soul will be sucked into his Wheel and you go back to the endless cold of the Underworld."

"If that is the case then why don't I simply strike you do here and now?" Malek asked. "What difference would it make?"

"None. Precisely." Vorador agreed. "So it's your choice Malek. Revenge or Honour?"

"I do hope you know what you're doing Vorador." Janos' voice told him telepathically.

Malek's gaze moved from the sword in his hands to the defenceless vampire before him, each one symbolising the choices presented to him.

Even before he made the decision, he was watched from afar by the Sarafan still holding the hills before the entrance to the canyon leading to the battered walls of Dark Eden.

"Why doesn't he strike the creature down?" One of the Order's generals asked.

"He is weak." Another stated and turned to face the crew of the monster cannon that was currently in the process of lifting one of the massive metallic projectiles into the weapon. "Continue bombarding the walls." He then gestured to a row of Archers that until now had been idle.

"Kill the fool and the beast. Use fiery arrows." The archers dipped their arrows into the flammable oil they had brought with them and torches set them alight. They aimed towards Vorador and Malek and drew back their strings.

Before they could fire, Malek raised his hand towards them and drew magic runes in the air before unleashing an elemental spell. Lightning scorched through the air, leaping from archer to archer before electrocuting them all.

Reacting as well, Vorador fired his own fire ball spell and unprotected as it was now; the cannon was struck head on. The magical fire reacted with the gunpowder and the weapon exploded with tremendous force, taking out the Sarafan general who died before their screams left their mouths.

The explosion also took out the Trebuchet and catapults the Order had arranged alongside it.

A loud cheer when up from the walls of Dark Eden from the Vampire Clans.

"Honour?" Malek asked without looking at the fires now spreading across the hills; now chasing the Sarafan army out of their encampments. "What definition of honour could I ever have? I just killed some of my own men and I'm not even sure why." He took one final look at the sword in hand before he hefted it up and tossed it away, the weapon sinking into the ground nearby; its green fire slowly dying away.

Umah and a handful of other vampires from both the Cabal and the Clans came out from Dark Eden. The vampires had won the battle and with the death of their generals and the destruction of their siege weaponry, the Sarafan tried to withdraw.

Their infantry was picked off by Zephonim archers and few of them managed to flee south, their mages casting a protective barrier as they retreated.

"Victory for Lord Kain!" Dumah declared.

Vorador stood back up. Malek looked the ancient over as if contemplating something. Eventually however he thought better off it and turned away. He wandered a short distance before he found a rock jutting out of the ground and sat down on it; collapsing his helmet on his gauntlets and letting out a long pent up sigh that spoke of released emotion.

"Take the Pillar, vampire." He muttered. "I am a failed man, a failed warrior and a failed knight.

I have failed in every duty and task that was every assigned to me."

Upon the uttering of those words Vorador felt something connect to him, as if a n invisible hand had reached down out of the ether and taken hold of him. He could feel a powerful link. It filled him with strength both physical and emotional.

Through this link he could feel the physical presence of others as well. He could sense his sire upon on the top of the cliff face more completely than ever before. So to could he feel the former Sarafan knight Ewoden in Willendorf and even William and Sally at the Citadel of the Apostles.

"We have no time for victory celebrations now." General Raziel told them and gestured off in the general direction of ruins Avernus. "Quickly, Dumah take your clansmen and scout the emerging Hylden. I want to know if they are going to attack us. Do not engage, we should know their strength before hostilities begin"

Dumah nodded once and quickly set about organizing his forces for the task.

"Zephon, Turel; you're with me. We have to pursue the Sarafan retreat. If we are fortunate we can catch them before they make it back to Willendorf. If we do, then we eliminate their military force."

"Hold fast clansmen!" A voice called from out of the sky. Vorador shuddered as he felt a presence suddenly coming souring towards them. It was a powerful presence, one he had never sensed from any being before and yet strangely familiar at the same time.

The clan vampires looked up as an object came hurtling out of the dull sky. It came down to the ground with a solid thud and all eyes were on the way of jet black wings that folded back as a tall imposing figure stood up.

Even Malek looked taken aback by the sight of winged being before them.

"K…kain?" Umah started staring upon this visage of the past. It was certainly Kain there was no doubt of that yet clearly much had happened to him. His skin had changed from green to sky blue and the ridge of horns across his forehead had gone his eyes were completely gold and seemed to shine with some inner light. The ends of his hands were no longer talons but rather large fingers shaped like those of the ancient vampires.

"Master…is that…you?" Zephon asked looking over this new vampire before them. Vorador's eyes were on the Reaver sheathed down Kain's back between his wings. Even the sword had changed, although not physically. On the outside it was still the same as it always had been but the elemental power it burned with was certainly a new addition. Bright and constant, its power augmented more than could be imagined.

"Stop gawking at me and assemble the troops!" He snapped. "We must pursue the Sarafan army before they have a chance to regroup. I have it on good authority that a peasant revolt is taking place in Willendorf. The Sarafan's grip is at its most tenuous. If we strike now, hard and fast this war will be over!"

Raziel was the first to recover.

"Erm…. As you command master."

"Well don't just stand there... MOVE!" Kain yelled and instantly his six clan leaders scattered to assemble what remained of their fighting force.

"What of the Hylden master?" Melchiah stopped to ask.

"They are of no threat." The winged vampire told them. "If possible I wish to claim them as allies but for the moment, let us concentrate on taking advantage of the Sarafan's military blunder. Now move it!"

As Dark Eden's defenders moved out to form ranks, Kain turned to face those others in his presence. He regarded the silent visage of Malek for a moment, before turning to face Umah.

"I will to Willendorf, Milady." He told her with a sweeping gentleman like bow. "Would you care to join me?" With that, Kain offered a hand forward.


	59. Boss 4: Election part 13

Naked and unprotected, Ewoden retrieved some Sarafan armour from the crates nearby and slipped it on; removing the symbols of the Order. He didn't want some Archer from the rebellion putting an arrow in his head by mistake.

Then he returned to the body of Sir Gaunt.

This man had been fighting under a flawed logic, his mind warped by priests whose words would break through the minds of even the most steadfast of men but even so this man had been a fellow knight and thus deserved the final respects.

Ewoden laid the body in a more respectable position, handing him his blade and pulling his eyelids down.

"When you see you're brother…" Ewoden started after a moment of prolonged silence. "Tell him… tell him I'm sorry."

Gaunt did not reply.

The Sarafan reinforcements which were supposed to cut off the rebellion and prevent them from marching on the fortress had been routed. The Cabal had taken them regiments unawares, ambushing them as they attempted to ambush the citizenry.

The Order, so arrogant for so long, had greatly underestimated the strength of the people they ruled over. Outnumbering the order almost one hundred to one, the peasantry swarmed over their defences and where now at the gates that led across the bridge to the fortress. Ewoden could see the crowd from the courtyard.

Stepping out into the moonlight, Ewoden found that he did not change shape into his lupine form. That honestly did not surprise him very much. Almost instinctively he knew that now he was the Guardian for the Pillar of Nature, he could control the beast within; thus giving him the ability to change shape whenever he wanted regardless of the stages of the moon.

The tower sentries were attempting to turn the massive barrage cannons around to face inland, rotating the massive weapons and loading them at the same time. They were preparing to open fire on the dissenters.

"No…" Ewoden muttered, a stern expression of anger coming onto his face. "You've soiled the name of knighthood far too much already." Without hesitation he cupped his hands in front of his chest; his fingers arching forward to drawn several arcane and ancient runes in mid air.

Summoning forth a torrent of fire, Ewoden sent flames flying towards each cannon. The heat ignited the gunpowder and the resulting inferno burst forth, causing the torrents and mounted defences to explode.

Bricks, motor and flaming pieces of iron shot out into the night sky; illuminating almost the entire city.

Dodging bits of falling rubble, Ewoden raced over to the gate which was still bared shut. Sarafan knights, their armour ripped and torn, ran past him; using their shields to try to protect themselves from the toppling debris.

The gate was still holding firm and through the holes in it, Ewoden could see the bridge leading to the mainland. The crowd had retreated back across it when the battlements exploded but they would quickly regain confidence and charge.

Reaching up, Ewoden tried to move the giant metallic barrier that kept the gate shut out the way. It was made of blackened iron and was far too heavy for him to reach, even with the flow of energy he could feel from being united with the Pillar of Nature.

He had to get this gate open though. He could finish this war right here. That crowd was poised on the brink of destroying the Order and their corruption.

But only if they acted quickly enough. The stronghold troops could hold this castle until their army returned from the north and then it would be too late to overthrown them.

This had to end now.

Suddenly Ewoden felt extra lift working with him and looking up, he saw the hulking, shaggy form of Obelisk. Still in his wolf state, the warrior wasted no word. He heaved the metal bar up, pulling over the top of the huge buckets and then with one last shove pulled it aside.

Once it was clear, Ewoden brought his foot up and then slammed it hard against the gate. His enhanced strength came to bare, knocking the gate open with a crashing thud, the gear works responsible for opening the gate normally, smashing apart.

"We've done it Obelisk!" Ewoden declared as, through the cloud of mortar dust, he could see the crowd moving back against the bridge towards the now open entrance. "We've done…" Before he could finish, the wolf collapsed forward onto its knees before finally toppling onto its front. Now Ewoden could see the deep wounds that coated its body, deep bites and cuts that sliced down to the bone.

"Obelisk no!" Ewoden cried, trying to stir him but it was already too late. The wolf shimmered, the fur receding back into the body and the autonomy correcting itself as Obelisk became human again. He was not breathing.

With utter horror Ewoden watched as a part of the horrible vision he had received at Midgard came to pass. He was dead.

Glancing up, tears in his eyes, Ewoden watched as the one responsible came souring out of the shadows at him. Kal… the traitor. The Seroli who had betrayed them, fed information to the Order and almost led to the rebellion's defeat.

In wolf form Kal charged, fangs readied and claws outstretched. Acting on blind rage, Ewoden brought his hands up and discharged a spell of elemental power. He didn't even bother to draw the runes needed to control it; he simply fired every ounce of spiritual energy inside his body in one unfocused burst.

The traitor was seared, the fur disappearing followed by the skin, then the flesh and finally the bones.

The backlash from the spell hurt him but kneeling over the body of his friend, Ewoden did not care.

This man had been the one to give him the mark of the wolf, which Ewoden knew now to be a gift not a curse. He had taught him how to use it, how to control the beast within. Without Obelisk, Ewoden would never have come this far. But Ewoden grieved not for a mentor nor for a guide. He grieved for the loss of another friend.

Death just kept coming back for more. It claimed Ewoden's mother, the other slaves in the mines of Willendorf. It claimed Cabal, Seroli, Sarafan and peasant alike and still it kept on coming back for more.

Death's hunger was never sated. It would not stop until it had claimed every single one of them.

"You BASTARD!!!" Ewoden cursed into the sky, holding a blood stained fist high. "When are you going to be satisfied?!"

He was so caught up in his own despair that he didn't even notice the flash of light from behind him as several beings materialised out of the midst of a translocation spell.

"Ewoden!" Sally started. She made to rush over to him but stopped when she saw the body her lover was crouched over. "Oh no…" She breathed and then slowly joined his side.

"Why?" Ewoden demanded, asking the question not of her but from everything around him. "Why do we all have to keep killing each other like this? Sarafan, human, vampire, Hylden, werewolf…. What god damn difference does it make?"

"Such chaos and death." T'kral muttered, staring around at the flaming remains of the castle walls. "How could I have yearned for this? I wanted to see the vampires like this... all of them. I wanted to see them burning."

With unveiled eyes he looked upon the destruction and saw it for what it was. A waste. There was no glory in it.

"We'd become monsters, all of us."

His sister laid a hand gently on his shoulder.

"It was only a nightmare, T'kral." She told him. "It's over now."

He shook his head.

"No its not." He replied. "We have to put this all to an end. This war has to stop." He looked up at the main keep which was still flying the banner of the Sarafan order. "And the only way it will stop is when those parasites are defeated."

Ewoden stood up sharply and glanced up across the bridge towards the rest of Wilendrof where the fighting was still going on.

"What's wrong?" Sally asked him.

"This is all what I saw at Midgard." He told her, allowing a small slip of fear to rush to the surface. "This is the just the beginning now. If this happened…then the next death I saw will come to pass."

"Whose?" She asked.

"Ramok's." Ewoden said simply, about facing and charging through the gate and into the ground; pushing past the militia men charging into the now open fortress. Sally took a running start before leaping into the air after him, using her natural vampiric abilities to fly above the heads of the rebelling peasantry after the man she loved.

"There were moments when I did not think they could survive the election." The Seer confessed staring after them. "The two young lovers appeared to be the weakest amongst us at Midgard. Yet they have proven me wrong. Within them is a hidden strength. A strength that allowed them to assume their Guardianship long before the rest of us."

There was a sudden loud scream, the sound of a woman.

William looked up in alarm.

"Alicia!!" He cried out.

--

The princess had been strapped across a large flat metal table, her arms and legs pinned in place by large metallic shackles. Her father stood there, watching with an intensely pained expression as the alchemist readied his equipment. He wished, so sincerely wished, that there was another way.

But Sabre had already assured him that there was not. If his daughter's soul was to be saved… the procedure had to continue. The king was not entirely certain what the procedure entailed but he trusted the good judgement of the Sarafan leader.

"Father please…." Alicia muttered. "Please… listen to me."

The king tried his best to look impartial but didn't really succeed.

"They've lied to you. The Sarafan do not represent the true god." The princess tried again, pleading with her father.

One of the guards moved forward and slapped her around the face sharply with his metal gauntlet.

"Blasphemer! The Sarafan Order IS god!!"

The king looked up at him sharper.

"You are the blasphemer here." He declared. "How dare you claim to be the almighty?!"

"Restrain him." Elzevir stated without looking around. Without hesitation two more Sarafan grabbed the king from behind and held him fast. He struggled to free himself but the trained warriors were a great deal stronger than he was.

"What is the meaning of this?!" He demanded, shooting a glance back over his shoulder towards Elzevir.

The small, balding little man chuckled.

"I simply don't want you in the way." He retorted and lifted some object out of a wooden case. The king couldn't see it very well from behind him. "Of course…. I'll deal with you once the Princess is collected."

"Collected?" The king repeated. "Just what are you doing?"

"Oh you damn Ottmar's!" There was a tone of unwavering hate in Elzevir's voice. "I hate your family! I hate it beyond everything else! I want you all to suffer!" He turned around slowly and the king froze; eyes wide open and mouth agape. Utter horror was plain upon his face.

Passed down from one Ottmar king to the next was a story, a story about a doll maker, who had arrived in court and presented a beautiful doll to the ruling king and his only daughter. The only payment the doll maker would take for such a magnificent toy was a lock of the princess' hair.

Not long after that, the princess' soul was torn from her body and imprisoned within another doll of the doll maker's choosing.

The item Elzevir was carrying was a rag doll. The same one described as in the stories as being the respectable for the imprisoned princess' soul.

Suddenly realizing just what fiend he was in the company of; the king carried out and struggled violently against the Sarafan holding him.

"Doll-maker!!!" He almost screamed as Elzevir moved slowly towards the pinned down princess. The short man simply widened his grin and with his free hand, reached into his pocket and withdrew a pair of scissors.


	60. Boss 4: Election part 14

"Pretty soul…yes… a fine replacement." Elzevir began, a sadistic and unholy hunger filling his eyes as he laid the rag doll on a side podium next to the table. "Why couldn't you have let me have the original? The original princess Alicia… she was an air head. Your kingdom was better off without her. But you send that filthy undead to reclaim her… SHE WAS MINE!!!"

The doll maker was frothing at the mouth and once he'd finished ranting, he wiped it away from the side of his mouth. There was no doubt left now. The king could see that he was insane.

"Why…why did Sabre betray me…" He breathed, unable to comprehend why the Sarafan leader would deliver the royal family into the hands of its greatest enemy; a legendary evil which had pursued them for hundreds of years.

"I don't care." Elzevir replied indifferently. "Apparently he wants your bloodline dead. Perhaps he wants the throne himself. As long as I get what I want, it matters little to me."

"Now…father… now do you see?" Alicia asked. "Please… please listen to me. I know you love your god but the Sarafan do not. They only pretend to."

"Shut up!" One of the guards told her sharply, spitting each word.

"Please, father, see them for the monsters they are." The Princess carried on anyway, ignoring him even as a sword was sharply drawn. "See the injustices they've committed on our people."

"I said, shut up!"

Looking up, Elzevir could see a sword blade about to plunge into the princess' exposed stomach. He held up his hand quickly, drawing runes in the air with his forefinger. There was a sharp discharge of elemental magic, a bolt of lightning coursed through the air. It smacked into the guard with a tremendous clap, electricity roasting the man inside his own armour.

Trailing smoke, the blackened carcass collapsed to the floor.

"I need her alive, you idiots!" The doll maker snapped. "The two of you left, just keep that cretin in a crown from interfering." Elzevir moved closer to the princess and took a hold of one of the locks of long hair.

"NO! Stop it!" The king carried out, struggling against those holding him. A fist encased in chain-mail smashed itself into his stomach, the blow winding him. The king doubled over, saliva and blood flying from his mouth.

"Why don't we just kill him?" One of them asked, grabbing the king by his hair.

"No, I want him to witness this." Elzevir told them without looking back. "But once I'm finished, feel free."

The two guards chuckled and one of then punched the king again for good measure.

Elzevir snipped the scissors once in the air before bringing them down and removing a small lock of chestnut hair from the princess.

There was something special about the scissors and when they cut the hair, Alicia gasped as she felt the anchors that held her soul in place loosen. It felt like dying… she felt cold, displaced and tired.

"Stop it… stop…" The king was silenced by another blow to the stomach.

Elzevir brought the hair in his grasp over to the doll, preparing to nail it in place. Before he could, the door to the chamber burst inward; flying forth until it smashed against the large collection of alchemical equipment against the far wall.

Elzevir glanced up in alarm as the shape of an angel was silhouetted against the light pouring in. A pair of glowing, golden eyes stared him down and in utter alarm; the doll maker dropped the pair of scissors he was holding.

The spell was interrupted and the anchoring keeping Alicia's soul in place reasserted itself.

"William…" She breathed, looking up. Despite the change of skin colour, the wings and cloven hands; she knew it was him. She could feel it, like a faint tingle at the back of her mind.

"What…what are you?" Elzevir asked, trembling as he backed away. The angel moved into the room, the raven black feathers of his wings trailing softly on the floor. With a furrowed brow, William glanced at the shackles keeping the princess in place. One by one they broke open in a sharp spray of magic particles.

Alicia sat back up and looked directly at him. While it was William, she could also sense a change beyond the physical. William had been so unsure of himself, so insecure and timid. This William was different. The way he stood there, unblinking… he was so confident.

"Its quite simple who I am."

He walked purposely past both Alicia and Elzevir, steadily up to the two men holding the king. The Sarafan guards were staring at him with wide eyes and stunned expression adorned their faces.

"I am the Nemesis."

His moves lightening fast, his fists smashed into their faces. Their helmets were thrown clear as the two of them collapsed to the ground.

"Are you alright?" William asked, helping the king up. The old man simply stared at him with clear awe.

"William!" Alicia declared sharply from behind him. Glancing back, the angelic being could see another figure in the doorway.

"The Nemesis? So you realized you're potential and across the depths of time. Interesting."

Sabre, leader of the Sarafan Order, was clad in full white armour and in one hand he was holding his pure, double edged sword.

William turned to face him completely.

"You bested Swift. Congratulations." Sabre continued but there was clearly an underlying note of disaffection. "I'm actually impressed with you're sides candidates. Now… the only candidates for election I have left are Anubis, myself and that snivelling weasel over there."

"Master Sabre, protect me please!" Elzevir begged.

"Why?" Sabre asked indifferently. "You've already failed. Malek betrayed us, Archon betrayed us and you are a miserable failure. I leave you now to your fate. The Lord will deal with you soon."

He flicked his sword blade up towards William.

"Kain is on his way here. I will hunt himsoon enough but I do believe I'll warm up by killing you."

William just managed a grin.

"You're a sore looser." He commented dryly.

"Looser? Not yet. As long as I win the election for the Pillar of Balance, I will prevail regardless of other elections. Even by combining with his younger self, Kain is still no match for me. But I believe I've said all I need to."

There was a short moment of silence.

Sabre leapt at William, sword drawn back ready to stab forward. William flew back against the wall, darting out of the way as the blade sank into the stone where he had so recently been.

"Why Lord Sabre…why?" The king asked, staring up as the Sarafan leader withdrew his sword; a thick sadistic grin on his face. Sabre ignored him and ran at William, attempting to run the vampire through. Flying back out the door, William drew him away.

The fight exploded through a window and the two of them burst out onto a rooftop. In the courtyard of the fort below, the peasantry had overpowered the guards on the front gates and were now storming into the fortress. There was no stopping them now. They'd be taking control of this stronghold within the hour.

The other garrisons around the city had already been taken down and only this one remained. With the Sarafan army in the north crushed as well, this meant, for the first time in history that mankind was now free from Sarafan control.

The order, the original order, had been created by Moebius in the days of the Ancient Vampires. They had been an honourable vanguard of knights, refusing to allow the Ancients to kidnap their children.

Over the years their objectives changed, probably due to Moebius' shining influence, and they became the tyrannical rulers they were today.

Kain emerged out of the translocation spell with Umah wrapped in his arms, landing softly on the edge of the battlements the two of them had a perfect view of the swarm of people moving across the bridge.

"Have we won?" Umah asked.

"Against the Sarafan puppets? Yes." He replied, setting her down. "But not against the ultimate player."

This… new existence… was something Kain was going to have to get used to. It was so very odd. He had deliberately created a paradox not once by twice. First by running his former self through and then by merging with his former self, right before he died.

In doing so, at least according to the Midgard wolf, Kain now occupied the position his former self had held in this timeline.

The act reformed the very nature of history… and that reforming was still in flux. What history became; the behaviour of destiny; now depended on the outcome of the Election. So far things were going in their favour. Vorador, Janos, Ewoden, William and Sally had won their elections. Five of the Pillars of Nosgoth had been restored. Four more remained.

But Kain was distracted. Ever since he had joined with his younger self, Kain had been aware of a buzzing. It was like many people where whispering to him in his ear. The sound, at the moment, was so small that it could be ignored but slowly its volume was beginning to increase.

At this rate it would become deafening before too long.

Perhaps this was the price for having the power necessary to accomplish this mission.

"Take this." He stated, handing the vial containing the cure to Umah. "Go find the Princess. I believe she will be nearby and the Seer will meet you there."

Kain turned his head sharply to the left.

"Ah. William is here as well." Suddenly Kain's expression became angered. "And so is Sabre." He spread his wings out wide and took hold of the Reaver in both hands, its elemental energy sparking to life.

"What about Vorador and the Cabal?" She asked, looking up at him.

"They'll catch up soon. We have to move now, quickly!" Without another word he took to the air.

* * *

--

"You're mine yet!" Elzevir snarled, facing the princess, snatching up the scissors from the floor. "I'll remake my love with your soul… you see… I will… I WILL!" Alicia slid off the table and took out a sword from one of the unconscious guards on the floor. She held the weapon clumsily before her.

"Stay away from my daughter you fiend!" The king called out, struggling to get back to his feet but after being hit so many times he couldn't get up.

Something within Alicia told her that this was a special moment. Something would be decided here. Something very important.

She dodged Elzevir's lunge and rolled, coming to a stop by the bottles of alchemic equipment nearby. Desperately, her free hand searched for something that could help her.

It was then she picked up the bottle and without hesitating, she flung it right at the doll maker.

Elzevir knew what bottle it was and staggered back, desperately trying to avoid it.

"NO!!" He screamed but his protests could not prevent the bottle breaking open on him. The glass contained a spell, one he had bottled himself, for bottled spells were easier to use than convention ones. The user need only remove the cork for it to work. The label on the top read 'Font of Putresce'.

The affects were so horrible that the king emptied his stomach on the spot. Giant leeches, gold instead of black, emerged out of the doll maker's skin and they began to eat him from the inside out. His screams of pain were cut short as his throat was infested with leeches, dozens of them dropping out of his mouth. His eyes dissolved in their seconds, devoured by the leeches and a few even began dropping out his ears.

Slowly but surely they dissolved his entire body, even his clothes broke down as he sank down becoming a thick red puddle of skin, blood and internal organs.

As Elzevir died, Alicia felt a sudden surge and a connection within herself. She felt the presence of a few of the others she had met at Midgard and what they were doing right now. William was fighting with Sabre. Sally and Ewoden were charging through the chaotic streets of the city in search of a friend. Vorador and Janos Audron were accompanying an army of Cabal and Clan vampires on their way to Willendorf, perusing the remnants of the Sarafan force as they went.

Far away in the south west of Nosgoth, another of the broken and grey pillars was empowered with new life. The Pillar of States glowed brightly once before its pieces started fitting back together; reforming themselves back into their original undefiled state.

Thus was the Election for the Pillar of States decided and Elzevir, the mad doll maker and his ages old anonymity for the Ottmar family finally put to rest.

"What….what kind of world is this?" The kind asked, dragging his daughter away from the slathering leeches as they finished their meal. "Why is this happening?"

"I can answer that for you, your majesty."

The king whirled around. Standing there in the doorway were four figures. One was Umah, the second was the Hylden Seer and the third was Archon. The forth one was a Hylden Alicia had never seen before, male by appearance and quite skinny compared to the Seer.

"Lord Archon, what is happening? I don't understand." The king asked, moving towards the well dressed man.

"Its time you know the truth, my liege." Archon told him. "And Umah here…I believe that's your task isn't it?"

Umah blinked and then she realized why Kain had taken her along with him when they teleported ahead of the army. Somehow, he knew what she was supposed to do here.

The king of Willendorf was her opponent for the Pillar of Death. But to claim it, she did not have to kill him.

Umah led the king out onto the battlements. From there they could see beyond the thin stretch of water that separated the fort from the rest of the city. Willendorf was fraught with chaos. There were dozens of fires and the streets were clogged with people.

"It's a revolution!" The king cried in dismay.

"Yes it is." Umah agreed. "But this is long overdue. Your people have been crying out for help, crying to you to save them. The Sarafan have brutalised them, forced them to submit. And they cried to you for help… but the Sarafan had you wrapped around their little finger."

The king stood there on the battlements, beholding the city and province in ruled, perhaps for the first time in the light of truth.

"I'm sorry father…" Alicia told him a bare whisper.

"It was all…it was all for the glory of god…" The king began weakly.

"A fine excuse." Umah replied. "It sounds good and moral but look out upon this city… see the results of the Sarafan brutality and then tell us again… that this for the glory of god."

The king broke down into tears and when the first one struck the ground, he had lost the election for he, unknowingly, had been Sabre's candidate for the Pillar of Death.

The guardianship past to Umah and miles away, alongside the newly restored Pillar of States, the pillar of Death restored itself.

Only two pillars were left. The Pillar of Time and the Pillar of Balance. With the mass majority of the Pillars restored, life within Nosgoth was almost at the point of regeneration. There was new grass growing around the base of the pillars the leaves on the dead trees were sudden return; growing greener and more full almost with every passing minute.

Without warning, with wings of light protruding from his back, Sabre came flying up directly in front of the startled group. Grinning sadistically, he tossed the limp body of William at them by the ankle; knocking them all over.

"William!" Alicia scrambled to the winged vampire. He was alive, but just barely. His arms and legs were covered in deep slash marks. His feathers and hair matted by blood. One of his arms was broken.

"You can keep him for now." Sabre laughed, turning about to face his next opponent. "But for this moment, let the hunt begin!"

Kain came flying out of the darkness and brought the Reaver crashing down. With a clash of elemental forces, their swords clashed.


	61. The Cure

Our swords clashed with sparks flying as we, the two angels, one with raven black wings and the other with wings of light; met in battle above the battlements of the Willendorf fort.

The tremendous clap of thunder that accompanied each strike resonated through the entire city and the revolting peasants now occupying the courtyard, glanced up in amazement as they became witness to the battle.

"Come to give me your soul?" Sabre asked with a cruel smile, parrying aside the thrust of the empowered Reaver with ease and driving in close, his own sword slicing a feather in half as I flew backwards.

"No. I've come to claim yours!" I stated, rebounding off the side of a tower and spinning through the air back at his opponent. Before Sabre could retaliate, I managed to grab him by the throat and dragged him close to the two of us were level face to face.

"You still hunger for blood. The wings and blue skin mean nothing." Sabre stated still with a grin. He kicked me in the stomach, forcing him to let go. I gagged out from the blow.

Freed from the grip, The Sarafan Leader soured high into the sky and once he had ascended high enough held up his free hand and gathered magical energy. Lightning sparked between his fingers before he unleashed the spell directly at me.

I held up his own hand, creating a barrier of light before him. The bolts of deadly magic coursed around him but did him no harm, flying off either side harmlessly.

"You're wasting your time Sabre, I have more power and strength now then I know what to do with." I declared confidently, holding up the Reaver Blade.

"But do you have the control?" Sabre retorted, retaining his smile. His fingers blurred as they drew runes in the air and he unleashed a torrent of fireball spells. "Lets see, vampire!"

The spells were easily countered.

Unleashing the elemental power contained with the sword, I called upon the power of Water. The air around me was instantly flooded with moisture and the fireballs dissipated long before they impacted.

"Tell me vampire, can you hear the voices murmuring in your head yet?" Sabre asked, dropping down so the two of us were at the same level.

As a matter of fact I could. The voices that had been bothering me were now beginning to grow louder. Now, instead of whispers, I could make out little bits and pieces of words. Nothing coherent but still enough to distract me.

"Do you know what they are?" Sabre carried on, looking a little too smug for my liking. "They're the voices of every single person you have killed. Can you hear them all? The cries of the young assassins that first took your life? Countless Sarafan… peasants by the score… even other vampires.

Many have fallen before you Kain… and now their screams of anguish are finally coming back to haunt you."

The volume of the voices rose for a moment before dipping again, almost as if to reinforce what Sabre was telling me.

Trying my best to ignore him, I drove directly at him with the Sword; calling forth the power of light. The blade became a beacon of light so intense it could be seen even from the clan armies marching towards Willendorf. I had left Vorador in charge of it, much to a chagrin of the pre-fallen Raziel. Vorador and Malek made a great, if extremely unlikely, pair of strategically minded generals

They had pursued the remains of the Sarafan down and with them destroyed, where marching on the city. While this boded well, the clans would fall upon the city and devour it if they remained as they were.

The time for the unleashing of the cure was now. That is if I knew how to open its damn container.

"Umah… open it! Quickly!" I called down to the battlement, turning back to face Sabre in time to block one of his strikes.

"And just how am I supposed to do that?" Umah demanded, trying to break the container open several ways including attempting to break it over her knee.

"I think not, Kain." Sabre told me as we attempted to overpower each other in mid air. "The vampires are cursed and cursed they will remain." He parried me aside, using his sword to flick me out of the way and then aimed his own free hand directly at Umah. Bolts of magical lightning sparked down his arm as the spell began.

I tried to intercept but I was too late. The lightning shot through the air past me..

"MOVE!" The Princess Alicia pushed Umah out of the way, knocking the female vampire to the ground. The vial containing the cure spiralled out of her hands and scattered across the battlements until it spun to a stop at the feet of the king.

The Princess received the full force of Sabre's attack, the lightning causing her to cry out in pain as he clothes roasted around her and her skin blistered. Her hair blackened and steam started rising from her body.

With a scream, I kicked Sabre across the mid section; interrupting the spell before it could kill her. I was too late to save her from great harm however.

"NO!!!" Her father declared in utter horror. William struggled to get up despite his injuries and somehow he managed to catch Alicia as she toppled back, her body gripped in powerful seizures.

"Let me through!" The seer declared, attempting to reach the princess to heal her. Before she could, a shape came hurtling out of the shadows at her. It hit her squarely in the face, sending her flying back across the battlements until the Hylden slammed against a railing.

"She dies Seer, it is her time."

I growled in announce to see another of Sabre's cronies attack them. This one was a woman, at least in flesh. I could sense more to her. She was a Sluagh incarnate… more of the Elder's handiwork.

I did not know it at the time but her name was Anubis, the enemies' candidate for the Pillar of Time.

"Brother, tend to the princess…" The seer told the Hylden T'kral who accompanied her. The Hylden female hoisted herself back up and confronted her challenger head on. "This one is mine!"

Anubis cackled insanely and, holding her sabre blade in one hand charged at the Seer. The seer doubled back across the roof tops of the fort and out of sight behind a tower. As they fought, I tried to disengage myself from Sabre; or at least wound him to give me the opportunity to do something about the princess.

Down below, the king looked upon the helpless and charred form his only daughter and then, in that instant, he realized how mistaken he had been. The weight of his sin crashed down upon him like a tidal wave.

Feeling ashamed, he tore the crown from his head.

"I don't deserve to wear it!!" He dropped down to his knees, consumed with despair. As he did so, he hand fell upon the vial containing the cure.

The seer led upon to a suspended platform just over the courtyard. A large clock was slowly ticking away below them and the bell tower stood above.

"The bell toles for thee!" Anubis cackled, clearly insane. Either the imprisonment in flesh had driven the Slaugh mad or it had been like this before, the Seer didn't know.

Either way this fight was over before it began. The deranged Anubis barely had any concept of the world around her.

Anubis charged at the Seer, attempting to drive her Sabre through the Hylden's body.

"Fool." The seer simply sighed and then at the last second, stepped aside; letting the deranged creature fly past and topple over the edge of the railing.

Anubis didn't crash into the courtyard below. She managed to catch ahold of the large minute hand of the massive clock face, holding on for dear life.

"The flesh doesn't suite you." The seer called down to her. "I believe you'll be a lot more successful ferreting out lost souls in the spectral realm once more." Without another word, the Hylden cast a compressed telekinetic bolt up at the bell tower behind it. The bolt past through the large window and struck the massive bell.

It rang loudly once and the resonation past through the air like a shockwave and unable to hold on under its intensity, Anubis was forced to let go. Screaming, she dropped from the clock and plummeted down to the courtyard below.

The peasants below scrambled out of the way as she came down, her body rupturing at the high speed impact.

The guardianship for the Pillar of Time had been decided and with that, the Pillar began to restore itself, the pieces coming together.

Sabre growled in profound irritation and glanced off towards the bell tower.

"Not another one!" He snarled.

Using this as an opening, I head butted him, leaving him stunned for a moment. That was enough time to call forth the elemental power of spirit, the most powerful element within the blade and come at the Sarafan leader with everything I had.

I struck him directly in the chest. That should have been enough to destroy his entire body. But instead, by some enchantments no doubt, he escaped death. My blow merely shattered his armour, exposing his chest.

The metallic shards flew off in all directions, the pieces clattering to the flour of the courtyard far below.

I knew that the ability to harness light came from the soul enchanted armour and I guessed that meant his wings would disappear as well.

I was wrong. The wings weren't coming out the armour. These wings of light were protruding out of the Sarafan leader himself as if they were part of his being.

Below, on the battlements, while T'kral tended to the princess as best he could; her father stood up again, holding in his hands the vial containing the cure.

I supposed he recognised the puzzle for I have since been told that the king had been very good for puzzles of all kinds. With his eyes firmly fixed upon the maimed body of his daughter, his hands worked upon the complex lock and parts of it began to click back into place.

Bronze pieces slide back and forth, some rotating around until they fit together in a far less complex pattern and the vial began to completely expose itself.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Sabre demanded, turning to face the king in mid air. The Sarafan leader had lost his cool and calm exterior now and appeared quite panicked.

The King of Willendorf now finally saw clearly.

"Leaving my daughter something to remember me by." He replied angrily. Sabre gripped his sword like a javelin and tossed it down through the air directly at him.

Unable to move that quickly all the king could do to defy the man who had lied to him for so long was to unlock the cure the moment before the sword sank into his chest.

"YES!" I cried out.

As the vial dropped from the king's hands, its restraints freed, it shattered upon the stone of the battlements and the white liquid was exposed to the air.

What happened next was so phenomenal there was no place in Nosgoth where its affects were not felt.

A flare, like the early rising sun erupted from the broken vial and it engulfed everything as it expanded outwards. The battlements and those upon them were consumed instantly and I quickly followed, my arms outstretched to embrace it.

Finally… it began.

"Ewoden look!" Sally declared, glancing back across the river as the two of them were making their way to where the battle for the city was still raging. The former knight stopped and stared the light engulfed the entire island upon which the fort had been was now awash with light.

"What's…" Ewoden started in wonder but paused when he noticed some strange event was taking place.

Sally was changing.

Her skin, it was changing colour. Ewoden stared at her in utter wonder as her skin changed; from pale white it became darker and darker. She was turning blue.

Through the city, people in the midst of fight; even the remains of the Sarafan militia who were on the verge of surrender, stopped and stared at the Cabal in their mix started changing. Their skin was quickly becoming blue.

One by one, wings started emerging from their backs. It wasn't a painful transformation as the expressions on the vampires showed. They looked more stunned and awed than in the midst of extreme pain as the wings sprouted from them.

The clan army marching on Willendorf had more warning that something was happening before the affects of the cure, spreading out across Nosgoth, hit them.

Turelim and Melchiahim alike dropped their sword and shields in astonishment as their skin changed, becoming blue and their fingers and toes melded together to form the cloven hands and feet of the ancients.

"He did it…" Janos Audron declared in glee, feeling the blood thirst recede from him for the first time in eons. "He actually did it!!"

Vorador's ears became less pronounced, shrinking pack to a more appropriate size. Malek, who had been standing beside him at the time, jumped to the side in alarm as Vorador's clothes spilt apart; wings spreading out behind him.

"What is this… what's happening?" Raziel demanded, holding his hands out in front of him as his skin turned blue.

"I feel…. I feel strange…" Zephon declared, dropping down to his knees and putting a hand over his stomach as the wings sprouted from his back.

"That's what it feels like not to hunger for blood." Janos told them all, tears flooding his golden eyes. "Our race… our race is reborn…"

All across Nosgoth, had cure had the came affect. Each and every single vampire, hidden or otherwise, began mutating. Their skin turned blue, their new wings sprouted and they blood hunger vanished.

No longer would the sun burn or the water scold.

From this on, no longer would the name Vampire mean 'parasite'. Now it was simply the name of a race, a race as legitimate as either mankind or Hylden.

It felt strange, not be constantly hungering for blood.

I hadn't felt this sense of non-predatory peace since I had been human, but I didn't feel human exactly either. I felt stronger… stronger than I had ever been as a blood drinker.

I had lost my immortality… but strangely that did not strike me as overly important. Besides, I had lived for thousands of years already and there was only one important thing left for me to do.

The murmuring in my ear, of the voices Sabre claimed were the voices of those I had killed, were still there but for the moment I could put them aside.

Sabre's face was filled with an emotion had had not seen him display up until now.

There was annoyance, frustration but most of all there was fear!

As the light receded I risked a glance down to those on the battlements.

"Oh Kain… Kain its so…" Umah started below in bliss. She looked… divine. There was no other word for it. She was so beautiful .Her wings were graceful and sleek and her hair was longer than it had been before and was now glistening like starlight.

Sabre pressed his lips together, silently fuming.

"You've failed." I stated, shooting a hostile glare at him. "We are free and now only you remain. The final enemy candidate." I held the Reaver up. "So… shall we decide the fate of the Pillar of Balance right here?"

"Hardly fitting." The Sarafan leader stated, managing to regain some of his composure. "No…not here. Let us meet a location far more appropriate for this battle. I think you know where." He wrapped his wings, made of sunlight, around himself. "Enjoy this short victory. I'll be waiting for you once you're ready to face me."

Without another word he teleported away.


	62. The last intermission

The battle for Willendorf had been won. This victory, coupled with the destruction of the army in the north, spelled the end of the Order. All over Willendorf the flags bearing the icon of the Sarafan were torn down and burned in the streets. Massive bonfires were made in several districts and anything bearing the icon of the order or anything even remotely associated with the order, was burned.

Once the fort at the centre of the city fell, the independent regiments of Sarafan around Willendorf began surrendering one by one.

Ewoden knew it was nothing more than a coincidence that it happened at the same time, but before viewed the vampires becoming angels as a sign that god was with them. It gave people a huge boast of moral and as soon as the city was completely taken over, parties started breaking out.

Ewoden didn't have time to chock back Mead or Ale, despite heading it to steady his hand.

"Ewoden… what are you doing here?" Ramek asked, turning to face as the new Guardian of the Pillar of Nature blundered into the courtyard where the Cabal and the Seroli had set up camp. The Seroli were in wolf form, under the light from the full moon but these were trained warriors, disciplined enough to keep their feral urges under control.

Many Sarafan soldiers had surrendered there and where under arrest. Their officers, at least the most fanatical ones, had been executed and the others quickly fell into line.

"I thought I ordered you to see to the safety of the princess!"

Ramak, despite having to discard his axe after he had blunted it by smashing it through one too many helmets, looked well and hardly at death's door.

Ewoden let out a long sigh of relief, almost ignoring Ramek's protests. The former knight sank down to the ground, allowing himself to feel the burden of fatigue and the weight of the armour he had stolen.

"Are you even listening to me?" Ramek asked.

Ewoden wasn't.

He was just so relieved. But the relief for the safety of Ramek was almost instantly overshadowed by the sudden reassurance of the grief. Obelisk... Obelisk was dead….gone.

Ramek was safe… but Obelisk was dead… dead… alive…

"Ewoden look out!" Sally carried out, flying in, but stumbling, not used to the new wings.

One of the surrendered Sarafan suddenly broke free of his bounds, snatched a sword from his startled guard and charged straight at Ewoden. Screaming like a fanatic, the young man readied the blade preparing to drive it into the former knight while his defences were down.

Ewoden glanced up at the last second and tried to move, but Ramek darted in the way. The wound be assassin's knife sank into the leader of the Seroli but ignoring the pain; Ramek took hold of the Sarafan's head and twisted it sharply. His neck broken, the knight collapsed to the ground.

"No…No! not again!" Ewoden cried out, watching as Ramek slowly removed the sword blade from his chest. His clothes were slowly staining with blood and his pale grew pale.

"Do not be too concerned." Ramek told him almost absently. Then he collapsed down to the ground, first onto his knees and then forward onto his front. Ewoden staggered forward, trying to keep him up but Ramek brushed off his efforts. "This is my time.

I was the one who gave you the Lupine Gospels remember? My fate had been foretold long ago. I am not afraid to face it now."

Tears started filling Ewoden's eyes.

"I'm sorry… I tried to prevent it. I tried to protect both you and Obelisk but I…"

"So Obelisk is dead?" Ramek asked, sounding rather calm about it. "I suppose that is expected. After all… he was next in line to be the head on the Seroli council after me. Now that he is gone… the title passes to you…"

Ewoden blinked.

"To… to me…" He began.

"The gospels told of the day when one of our kind would ascend to fill the role of Guardian of Nature." Ramek explained, his face slowly turning white. "And that one would lead us into a new age. You are that one Ewoden… we've been waiting for you for a long time."

"But…" Ewoden started. He was cut off as Ramek raised his voice as his own Seroli gathered around him.

"My fellow wolves! Be witnesses to my decree! Ewoden is our new pack leader!" Each of them nodded once, paying homage to their leader's final degree.

"But…why me?" Ewoden asked.

Ramek smiled weekly.

"Because you've earned it."

A small sigh escaped his lips as he died. Despite being in human form, Ewoden let out a long howl along with the other wolves.

* * *

-

"Perhaps yiou'd like to explain to me…" Raziel, leader of the Razielim clan, started as the leaders of the various powers gathered at the conquered fort in the middle of Willendorf. "PRECISELLY WHAT THE HELL THIS IS ABOUT!!!"

He erratically gestured to the wings on his back and the change of skin colour.

Each clan lord, Dumah, Raziel, Turel, Melchiah, Zephon and Ruhab were there. Each of them, along with the other vampires, had been changed and now were blue skinned ancients. Melchiah was enjoying this state more than his brothers as his skin was no longer constantly decomposing.

T'kral had done what he could for Alicia, who with her father's demise, had becoming the new Queen of Willendorf. With William at her side, she stood at the head of the table wearing simple clothes that didn't fit royalty. Her skin, for the most part, had healed but it would be some time before her hair regained his colour.

"You seem distracted." Vorador started, noticing that Malek was not a part of the meeting. The Paladin stood by the window, staring out south down the wide river that ran for miles until it reached Nosgoth's southern coast.

"Well me Vorador… what's it like to be mortal again?" Malek asked without looking back.

"It's…" Vorador paused as if struggling for the right analogy.

His ears had shrunk down to a far more appropriate size and the spike like studs on either side of his face had retracted back into his skin; leaving it unblemished.

He was still bald although he had signs of renewed growth. His wings were all like the others, raven black and trailing out behind him.

"It's like opening a book you've read before and become fascinated by it all over again."

Malek chuckled.

Vorador stood there in awe… did Malek…ACTUALLY… chuckle?

"Vorador, what I want is peace. I'm tired. I want death… but not that ageless limbo that stretched on forever where that…that spinner dwells.

I just want to sleep for eternity."

"What you want is oblivion." Vorador commented dryly.

"Aptly put." The paladin sighed. "This armour is cold… I can't stand it anymore."

Perhaps it was the new mortality but Vorador actually felt a pang of pity for his ancient foe.

"Well…" He started but shut his mouth when he fought better of it. There was a unique technique theorized to work by an obscure ancient vampire mage but Vorador was not inclined to trust the method. It had risks…

"What?" Malek asked. "Vorador I've nothing left to loose…"

Before Vorador could reply the doors to the conference room opened and Ewoden, followed closely by Sally, came in. As the new leader of the Seroli, Ewoden had a vanguard of several Werewolves who marched alongside him in human form, armed with spears and shields.

"Are you alright?" Umah asked.

"Do I look alright?" Ewoden retorted snippily as he sat down and buried his face in his hands. "No I am not alright. I lost two good friends I could have saved today."

"I heard of Ramak's demise." The princess started, trying to long dignified despite her charred appearance and the loss of her father; the latter fact burning at her far more than the former. "Your kind has my sympathies, Lord Ewoden."

"Lord…pah." Zephon remarked callously. "Little more than the pack leader of a group of mangy animals."

Ewoden's left hand was a blur as he drew several runes in the air, sending a medium strength fireball hurtling at the clan leader; striking the table just before him sending smoke flying up into his face.

None of the other clan leaders defended his honour. Ruhab actually started giggling.

"Now if we can get back to … this bizarre metamorphosis which has occurred to all the vampires?" Raziel started. "I do not understand what this means.

"I feel… different. The blood hunger disappeared. It has been nearly two days since I last drank and yet I feel nothing." Dumah added.

"Oh you will soon enough." Janos Audron told him with an all-knowing grin.

The ancient looked radiant and in better spirits than he'd been in years, leaning back in his chair with a wide grin.

"But not a hunger for blood. I estimate that within say…hmm… about five hours, we'll all be feeling hungry for something like freshly baked bread. Or perhaps some fresh fruit. Or pie! Everyone likes pie."

The clan leaders looked at him, all with raised eyebrows.

"I see I'm going to have to demonstrate." Janos leaned forward and picked up a silver goblet from the table. He held it forth for them to see. "This, my friends, is a cup of water."

Without any warning, he turned to Raziel and tossed the contents directly into the clan leader's face.

Raziel stood up sharply, trying to shield himself; expecting to be seared badly. The other clan leaders even breathed in sharply, expecting the same thing. But nothing happened.

"What…" Raziel started, realizing that the touch of water was no longer.

Vorador turned to the table, laughing out load.

"Allow me to cement this fact for you." He reached forward, took his own goblet off the table and drank from it.

Suddenly he gagged forward as the water hit his stomach.

"You idiot!" Dumah cried out. "Are you trying to burn yourself out from the inside?!"

All Vorador did was chuckle at that.

"No." he replied. "But it's been a long time since I drank any water… It's going to be a while before I'm used to it again."

Curious, Turel took hold of the goblet in front of him, looked at the water inside before swallowed a gulp. Although he felt a sharp stab of pain in his stomach as his body absorbed a substance it was not used to, there was no searing pain accompanying it.

"We are no longer cursed." Janos told them. "The water will no longer burn us. Sunlight will no longer roast our flesh. We no longer have any need for blood. Also… if you have any lady companions… please take note that you are no longer sterile. You can father children."

The clan leaders glanced at each other nervously. All of them did indeed have a number of concubines.

"We also have other skills now… but those are more obvious." Vorador asked, shifting his wings into fuller view.

"We are, as before, our own species." Janos continued. "And as such…. We will no longer need to dominate the humans for food and the Sarafan can not persecute for us for it."

One or two of the clan chiefs, almost, looked disappointed. Clearly they'd been looking forward to being the masters.

"Also…." Janos paused for a moment, wondering exactly how well this new fact would be received. "We are no longer immortal."

"What!" Zephon asked, standing up sharply and slapping his hands down on the table.

"I'm sorry but eventually we will all grow old and die."

Vorador shrugged.

"Small price to pay." He muttered.

"N…no…" Zephon looked utterly horror stricken.

Melchiah looked down at his new body, mortal, but with intact skin.

"Ah well, easy come easy go." He stated cheerfully. "Now that I think about, an eternal life where I had to keep changing skins isn't much of an eternal life."

"Just where is our lord?" Raziel asked, finally growing impatient. "Where is Kain?"

"Kain has gone to end this once and for all." Janos replied, duplicating Raziel's tone of voice. "Sabre, the leader of the Sarafan Order, managed to escape the rebellion. Your master has gone to kill him." The ancient paused. "Although… this may be a fight he can not win."

"Kain can topple mountains if he needs to." Ruhab stated confidently, folding his arms.

"We can only hope." Princess Alicia started. "Until he returns, we can discus here now we are going to run things from now on."

"We have an army surrounding your city." Dumah told her acidly. "I say that puts the vampires, even cursed removed, in charge." His tone was rich with arrogance.

"And my kind, along with their new demon allies, are behind you." T'kral told him, matching his tone. "You try anything stupid and we're not going to be happy."

"And I have an entire city full of peasantry fresh from a rebellion." The princess reminded them all. "They're still hot blooded and eager to fight. All I need to do is point out an enemy and sit back and enjoy it.

Let's keep things civil shall we? There's enough of Nosgoth to share isn't there? It was the Sarafan who beat this, one kingdom one rule scenario, into us."

"You presume to order us?" Dumah demanded angrily.

"She's not." Umah started. "I am… Kain's queen."

The chamber grew silent. Vorador stared at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Queen?" Raziel repeated looking equally as stunned.

"Is that true?" Malek asked, whispering to Vorador.

"Not a chance." Vorador replied. "But don't let them know that."

"I am Lord Kain's consort and he has installed in my all authority during his absence."

That was a lie but Umah was fairly sure she could get Kain to back her up when he came back. Unwilling to risk their lord's displeasure the clan lords would comply.

She was bluffing them out and so far it was working.

Janos however suddenly looked agitated. He shuddered once as some unpleasant feeling past over him. Sharply he crossed over to the window and gazed out at the horizon.

"Sire, is something wrong?" Vorador asked.

Janos could sense it. Unlike the rest of them, he was an original ancient, and far more in touch with his mystical senses then these inexperienced.

"He's angry." He began. "I can feel it now."

Vorador swung out of his chair and stood up.

"Angry? Who's angry?"

Janos didn't answer. He just kept his eyes firmly on the horizon.


	63. Boss 5: Sabre part 1

The Pillars of Nosgoth.

My fate…

The Fate of the Vampires…

The Fate of mankind….

The Fate of the Seroli…

The Fate of the Hylden…

The Fate of Nosgoth…

The nature of history itself now depended on them.

Eight of the nine pillars had been restored and they stood pristine against the sky, which despite the new life in the land, was still dark. Only one remained.

My Pillar… the Pillar of Balance. The key to it all.

As I emerged out of the teleportation spell, I took a moment to remember all the times I had been here.

The first had been during my first journey across Nosgoth to hunt down the corrupt circle of nine. Here I met the spirit of Ariel for the first time.

Upon these same grounds I fought with the Hylden possessing Mortanious and made my ill fated decision to damn the pillars.

Upon this spot I constructed the sanctuary of the clans and shattered the Reaver Blade against Raziel, freeing the deranged spirit within.

"Happy memories, I'm sure." Raziel retorted with dry wit, talking to me telepathically.

I ignored him. My attention as on the figure awaiting me at the base of the still corrupted Pillar of Balance.

Sabre stood with his back to me, glancing up at the eight restored pillars that stretched on for eternity. I had an intense feeling of déjà vu from this. This was exactly how I had stood, awaiting for Raziel when we first travelled to the past from the future.

"So Kain, are we going to waste time on mindless banter before we kill each other?" Sabre asked, turning to face me. He hadn't bothered to replace the breastplate I had shattered during our last fight and now stood before me with an exposed chest.

"This is the fight to decide the fate of Nosgoth." I replied. "I would think you'd like to do this the proper way."

"There is no proper way, vampire. One of us is going to die. What happens adjacent of that is inconsequential."

"Very well then. Let us finish this." Gripping the Reaver in both hands, I tensed my muscles before charging straight at him; the sword igniting into elemental blaze.

Sabre grinned, before parrying away my strike and doubled back.

Laying a hand against the Pillar of Energy, Sabre chuckled before holding the tip of his sword towards me. There was a sudden surge as if the air turned hot only for a single instant. Then without warning, a bolt of magical power shot down Sabre's blade directly at me. The tremendous projectile was heating up the air around it as it went.

Dodging around it in mid air, I unleashed a bolt of compressed telekinesis at Sabre in retaliation.

Surprisingly, he simply slapped it aside and unleashed another powerful bolt of magic at me.

There was no way Sabre had enough mana contained within his body to discharge bolts of that magnitude in succession. It was impossible, even for vampires.

After another three bolts had come close to hitting me, I had had enough. Gripping the Reaver Blade tightly in both hands, I flew directly at Sabre before he could finish gathering mana. Just as he discharge the spell, I swung the Reaver around in an arch; slicing the bolt across with the sword.

The resulting explosion dislodged Sabre from the Pillar of Energy, throwing him clear. As he did, I saw that threads of energy travelling from the Sarafan leader to the pillar were severed one by one.

"So that's it." I declared, turning about to face him. "You were having the pillar lend you its aspect."

Sabre's smile widened.

"So then, can the scion of balance withstand all the aspects of balance itself? Let's find out."

Before I could stop him, he laid his hand against the Pillar of Conflict. Again I felt the familiar surge of heat and watched as with a sudden flow, the bulk of Sabre's muscles doubled. He went really buff in an instant, his muscles becoming more defined and he even gained a couple dozen inches of height making him taller than me.

"Oh this is going to be painful." Raziel remarked dryly.

Like a behemoth, Sabre charged directly at me. In his enlarged hands, his sword blade was almost ridiculously small but he still swung it with skill and speed. It took every ounce of agility I had to avoid being cleaved in two. Several of my feathers were sliced from me but not enough to clip my wings.

Lashing out, Sabre grabbed me by the one arm and lashing me about like a rag doll, he tossed me with all his might into one of the pillars. I smashed into the ivory with a sickening crunch. I could not break the pillar but physical means but my body was another story. I felt several of my ribs crack on impact and several more accompany them as I slid back down to the ground stunned.

His muscle mass receding, Sabre changed back from the hulking giant to his normal state.

"Distracted Kain?" He asked, leaning on his sword. "Are those voices driving you insane yet? The gentle whispering in your ear? Is it growing louder? Let me, how does it feel like to have the voices of each and every one of your victims in your head?"

Spitting out a mixture of blood and saliva, I hauled myself to my feet.

"When I get to hell, you can tell me after you converse with the vampires you've killed!"

Reaching up, I laid my hand against the pillar I had collided with. It felt strange, drawing upon a pillar for power. I felt the air around me grow hot as the Pillar of the Mind lent me its strength.

I felt my mind expand, growing in a way I never felt possible. My intellect doubled, tripled and quadrupled in an instant. My telekinetic powers followed and reached out with my mind, I could feel each and every physical object around me.

Grabbing a hold of Sabre with an iron grip, I tore him off from the ground and flung him high into the air. He flew high, tumbling over himself as he soared higher and higher.

Spreading his arms out, he summoned his wings of light and both of them spread out wide. He came to a stop but not in time to defend himself as I flew directly at him, Reaver Blade in hand. Burning with the power of spirit, it became a fiery white unstoppable weapon.

I stuck him with all the strength I could quickly call to bear. The Reaver sliced through his flesh and then with a spray of blood it tore out the back. I was certain such a blow would have cleaved him in two.

About when I swung about, I found to my chagrin that he was still intact. He was bleeding from a massive wound in his side but he was still alive.

I watched as the blood running down his side changed from red to black. With his back to me, Sabre laughed mockingly and I watched as the wound began to heal. The flesh knitted itself back together and the skin moved back over it. Fully regenerated, he swung about in mid air and with a smug grin on his face flew directly at me.

Our swords clashed in rapid succession in mid air, sparks flying from the moments our blades connected. Gaining a momentary advantage, I grabbed him by the shoulder and using the momentum in my lunge slammed him against a pillar. Lashing out, I grabbed a hold of the Pillar next to it and began channelling its power through me.

Feeling the aspect of Death come through me, I gathered the will I had and channelled it into Sabre's body; trying to stop his heart.

Sabre simply grinned and lashed out to his right, touching the Pillar of States next to him. His body suddenly dissolved in my grip, becoming water. He slid through my fingers, falling to the ground almost like rain.

Becoming solid again below me, he rebounded off the ground and came at me again. Just before he reached me, he disappeared as his body changed from solid to a gas like state.

He was like a mist, quite unsubstantial and impossible to strike.

"You're not the only one who can do that." I reminded him and calling upon my vampiric gift, which had not disappeared despite my new non-cursed state, I faded into mist.

The two of us fought in another realm, a realm beyond the solid. While insubstantial to others, while in this state, we dealt each other savage blows. We were fighting on a molecular level.

Finally disengaging, Sabre broke away and re-materialised; his body reforming in the air before he dropped down to the ground. Becoming whole myself, I readied my sword for another confrontation.

Reaching out, he touched the Pillar next to him; calling upon the power of the Pillar of Dimension.

Almost instantly he disappeared, faded away into nothing. I knew what he was doing. He was moving through the dimensions, passing through one level of reality after another, slipping through them.

The Sarafan leader's sword lashed out of nowhere behind me, its tip catching me across the back; slicing through my flesh leaving a wet red mark.

Then again the blade came across my side, cutting me across my waist. Slipping through dimensions, Sabre lashed one a third time; trying to drive his sword through my heart. Before he could pierce my skin, I grabbed a hold of the sword and darted forward; flying through the gate he had opened and followed him through.

As we fell through the barriers between the realms, our swords clashed. We past through realm after realm, clashing and refusing to yield to each other.

We past through the Spectral Realm, the demon dimension and other realms I had yet to know even existed.

Ending this stalemate, I head butted Sabre and the blow forced the both of back to the pillars, the two of us emerging in own reality. Stunned momentarily, Sabre hovered there in mid looking groggy. That left the opportunity to place my hand against another Pillar, calling upon the power of nature.

"This is where you die!" He told him, willing the flora around me to come to my aid. Vines, roots and creepers tore out of the ground around the base of the pillars and like insidious tentacles, wrapped themselves around Sabre's body; pinning him in place there. Sabre struggled against the limbs holding him but even his enhanced strength wasn't enough. His wings of light beat rapidly as he tried to break them but the bounds would not yield.

I held the Reaver before me, calling forth the power of spirit, pulling all of the spirit I had within both the sword and myself.

"That's dangerous Kain!" Raziel warned me. "If you discharge too much you could deplete your own spirit."

I ignored him and continued channelling it all.

The eight restored pillars around me groaned, as if giving away to the enormous power I was attempting to wield.

.Letting out a loud cry, I took step after step forward; the Reaver in my hands was emitting so much light it was almost possible to see it from the other side of Nosgoth.

Raziel's own will came to my aid and together, our combined willpowers forced the sword up in an arch. The blow struck Sabre directly in the chest.

Sabre let out a startled yelp as the energy contained within the Reaver discharged into his body. Intense light lanced out of his eyes and mouth and a gust of intense wind blew me away. Scrapping my toes across the ground, I managed to come to a stop. I had to shield myself from the wind and intense light with my wing.

I felt sick… as if every ounce of strength had been drained from my being. Perhaps I should have conserved some strength.

Somehow, when the light died down and the wind ceased, I was able to gather enough strength to stand up. I had to use the Reaver as a crouch.

Glancing up, I could see that held by the vines and roots was a blackened charged body. It was barely even recognisable as the enemy I had been fighting. The roots receded and they relinquished their grip, the charcoaled body dropping down to the ground with a soft thud.

"So… I've won." I sighed, attempting to catch my breath. I was so exhausted. The muttering in my mind, those countless voices still would not shut up but I was too tired to care.

With some relish, I turned so that I could witness the final restoration of the Pillars of Nosgoth; the event I had been working centuries towards.

Nothing happened.

The pillar of Balance remained as inert and corroded as ever. Not a single piece of its remains moved.

"Kain! He's not dead!" Raziel yelled at me and glancing back, I watched the blackened corpse before began to move. Despite having no toes or fingers left, he managed to get back to its feet.

It laughed at me, the sound sounding horrible from its lipless mouth.

I watch in a mixture of fascination and horror as the black corroded skin began to fade, colour returning in a bizarre metamorphosis. Flesh, red with blood, seemed to almost push out of the ashes. Intensities wound their way inside the stomach, followed by veins and arties. Heart and lungs reformed as the eyes and tongue re-grew out of the body. Teeth grew back into the mouth and nails began to adorn the fingers and toes that reappeared.

In a flood of colour, skin came back over the flesh, followed by hair that spread out from the top of the head. It grew longer than first, reaching down the back to the waist and changed from blonde to pure white. The eyes too had changed colour, changing from brown to a bright sea blue.

Sabre was naked, his armour roasted and lying behind him carbonised. Yet the same runes that had been on his armour were now decorating his body and each of them was glowing blood red. With a sudden flourish, a pair of wings folded out his back. But these new ones were not made of light. These were quite solid, like my own, only the feathers were ivory white. Each feather outlined with a streak of gold.

"Just what manner of creature are you?" I asked, staring upon Sabre's transformed body.

Sabre spread his lips in a sadistic grin and clicked his fingers. In that next moment the hilt of a sword appeared in mid air before him. He snatched hold of it and the shaft of a golden blade arched up.

"I already told you Kain." He replied. "I am the Angel of Death!"

I realized all too quickly that this was his true face and up to now I had merely been fighting the disguise with which he walked undisturbed amongst the humans.

"I am the harvester." I held the Reaver up, only just managing to ward off his blow with the Reaver. "I am the Reaper and I will have your soul!" He grabbed my shoulder with a vice like grip and opened his mouth, a thick white glow emanating out from it.

I could feel my soul churn as some invisible hand tried to tug it out of its vassal. Weakened and unable to defy him, I felt myself slipping.

All I could do to stop him was to tumble backwards, dragging him with me. Lashing out, I laid my hand against the Pillar of Time.

There was a short flash of light and we both vanished, disappearing through the cracks of causality.


	64. Boss 5: Sabre part 2

Separated from Sabre, we fell through the streams of time; tumbling back and forth through the stream outside of normal causality. It was a strange sensation that felt entirely different to travelling though time by use of the Chronoplast.

I was as one with the flow of time and I felt that could go anywhere… to any period of time I chose. But this would not last long. I was drifting further and further into the depths of the time stream. If I did not re-enter time I would be unable to return ever again.

Picking a point in space and time at random, I willed myself back to Nosgoth. There was a loud churning sound and then I felt the air against my skin as reality seemed to fade in all around me.

I paused, trying to get my bearings. I wasn't sure of what time I had emerged in or even where I was. Dead trees that had once been pine stood up all round me, the sky a pale red above.

The voice, whispering in my head grew suddenly louder. I held my hands to my head, desperately trying to block it out.

"No… go away!" I declared. But the whispering continued.

"Kain…kain…kain…." An endless sea of voices all whispering that one name.

"Get out of my head!" It took some will to silence them but even then I couldn't completely block them out.

Regaining some composure, I took to the sky; flying directly up to get a better view of the land. I beheld the same corrupted world and decayed land I was so familiar with. It took a moment but I determined in which period of time I had emerged.

I had traveled back over two hundred years. This was a world still the midst of the Vampire Genocide orchestrated by Moebius. I could see the forests of spikes, each one with an impaled vampire, decorating ever road I flew over. The banner of Moebius' crusade was unmistakable.

Had Sabre been thrown into this period of time with me? Somehow I knew the answer. Yes he was here. I could just feel it. He had emerged in a different place but Sabre was definitely in this timeline.

When I came across the town of Stahlberg I knew where I was. I had drifted away from the Pillars and was now to the north of the province of Willendorf. This all seemed oddly familiar. I had definitely been here before.

Suddenly, I was hit by an intense feeling of Deja-vu. Glancing down, I could see a traveler on the road beneath me. My sight enhanced, I could see a very familiar figure making his way towards a hunter encampment.

It was me. This was my previous self, having recently returned from the past after killing William the Just to prevent him from becoming the Nemesis. The encampment I was walking into right now would host the execution of the last of Nosgoth's vampires, excluding myself of course.

Something about this struck me as important… that it was no coincidence that I was here. When I had been in Midgard, at the temple that assigned the nine of us our roles as Guardians, we had also received tasks to accomplish. Somehow, I couldn't explain how and neither could the voices whispering in my head, but I had to be here.

As I swung around the encampment to avoid being seen, I heard a sickening crunch as the blade of a guillotine came sliding down on its intended victim.

"We are free of this unholy scourge!" I heard someone cry. Dropping down to the ground, keeping myself hiding in the shadows, I watched as a man wearing an executioners mask held a severed head aloft.

It was the head of Vorador.

"Not yet my friend!" Another man told him and my blood boiled at the sight of him. It was Moebius, the time streamer. I had this one man to thank for the misery in my life. Out of all the beings in this world he was by far the most contemptible.

"Would you be free of the plague, if only one city was cleansed?" The time streamer continued, turning to the large crowd of mercenaries and peasants with too much time on their hands which was gathered before the guillotine.

"NO!" The crowd roared in response.

"Would you spare one wolf in the pack that had devastated your herd?" Moebius asked again and once more the crowd roared its protest.

"NO!"

"Then let us destroy them all!"

The crowd cheered enthusiastically, some of them waving curved scimitars in the air.

"He is the last!" The old man jabbed a finger towards the back of the crowd where my young self was standing. "Destroy him!"

It was saddening to watch as, at Moebius' command, the crowd turned once more into an unruly mod. I wanted to slice that old fool right here and now, or perhaps seen how entertained he would be if I tore him apart with my telekinesis. I couldn't do that however.

Moebius would die at some other point, twice at my hands and it wouldn't have been as satisfying if I did it now. Besides, I am not greedy. Killing Moebius twice was enough vengeance for me. A third time and I might be pushing my luck.

Suddenly, I realised why I was here.

It was no accident that I had emerged in this time, to witness this event once more. Whether my arrival here had been at the hands of fate or I had subconsciously chosen it was immaterial.

The fact was that I was here.

Vorador's body was pulled off by the guillotine by the executioner and dumped on top of other vampire carcasses. Once the mob had hunted down my former self I suspected they intended to make a bonfire out of Nosgoth's last vampires.

As they would not catch my former self this left the encampment relatively undefended. Moebius was being escorted away to a carriage, probably heading to the fated confrontation where I would lop off his head. The old man was confident that in the event of his death his master, the Elder God, would restore him to life. He would soon face reality when the Elder God would discard him, believing his pawn's purpose fulfilled.

I smiled. The old fool was so convinced that he knew everything that would happen and could plan his way around them, yet still he failed.

Vorador's head was taken apart from the other decapitations, probably as a trophy. As saddening as it was to rob the executioner of his prize, I required that head.

With Moebius gone and the last few vampire hunters simply standing around, I flew forth and in plain sight landed on the guillotine stand.

I did not expect them to challenge me, seeing as how these Vampire Hunters just like the Sarafan used angelic mythology to justify their murders.

Yet a few of them, once more just like the Sarafan, were simply in their endeavour because they could not tolerate anything unlike themselves.

A few of them took one look at the blue skin across me and the wings on my back were meaningless. Like the frothing racist fanatics they were they attacked, attempting to drive their swords through my stomach.

I flicked their sword thrusts aside with the Reaver and acting on instinct I sliced two in half before decapitating a third.

I expected to feel the exhilarating rush of battle I had always experienced but this… this felt different somehow.

I had killed hundreds of men throughout the centuries. I had ripped them apart, burst their bodies and caused torment in the most horrific ways but now, I actually felt guilty.

I had killed these men when they had not been expecting an attack and would have been helpless against me even if they had.

As the Reaver drank the last of their souls, I heard new voices added to the intense chorus of the dead that whispered in my ear.

Sabre had been right…they were the voices of those who had died by my hands. There was no doubt now.

As I looked at the corpses on the ground I felt… I felt disturbed.

I felt… as strange as it sounded…sorry.

"Oh my god…" The executioner breathed, staring directly at me. I whipped around, fully prepared to use telekinesis to impale the human on the Reaver. I stopped at the last second.

"A conscience, Kain?" Raziel asked telepathically. "Is this a product of your new mortality or perhaps its something you've simply buried for so long you'd forgotten about it?"

I sheathed the blade and slowly advanced towards the terrified man. Clearly he was stunned, simply standing there shaking with Vorador's head between his hands.

I could easily kill this man but some part of me, neither new or old, compelled me to try a far different tactic.

"I have been sent by god to claim this vampire's head and body." I spread my wings to make myself look biblical. "They must be taken so that his evil will not corrupt Nosgoth in death as he did in life. Do not defy the will of the lord, as these men have, lest I have need to strike thy down."

Religious rhetoric mixed with a little intimidation always seemed to impress humans, especially the weak minded ones.

Whatever hunters were left dropped down to their knees in an instant.

"Lord Moebius, our master, is also a servant of the lord." The executioner stated, handing the head over. "Shall I inform him off your coming?"

I smiled, knowing full well that Moebius would have his head removed by the time any message could reach him.

"Yes, please do that. He is to be rewarded for his service."

The head was easy to carry, but the body was somewhat more cumbersome. Finally I had to resort to carrying it in both arms, placing the head in the corpses lap.

To make a show of it to these humans, instead of flying away, I translocated in a flash of light.

Vorador's body had to be taken to a place where his life could be restored.

This was my task here, to maintain the causality that lead up to the election. Once this was accomplished the Election would be final and history, how it behaved… the nature of destiny itself… would be decided.

To finally destroy the cruel hand of fate.

To do that, I travelled west across the width of Nosgoth and returned the pillars. There was someone there I had to meet.

Although I did not know whether he would be in a disposition to aid me.

The pillars were cracked and grey, dull and compromised and the world around reflected that.

As I expected, standing there waiting at the bottom of the pillar of balance was a single figure.

Dropping down to the ground, I approached him making no attempt to conceal my presence.

"Whoever you are, you come at a bad time." The man stated, keeping his back to me. "The demon within me is sleeping, conserving its strength until its enemy comes to confront it."

He was Mortanious, the necromancer and Guardian for the Pillar of Death. It was he who had me murdered and transformed me into a vampire.

Here he awaited the coming of my younger self, who would come to claim his life.

"The Hylden lord is of no concern to me, Mortainious." I stated. Recognizing my voice he whipped around, eyes going wide at my blue skin and black wings, the visage of the ancient vampire who he had served before aiding Moebius in mankind's revolt.

"Kain?" He asked, staggering back. "But…but I just… I just spoke with you telepathically, this can not be."

"I am from the future." I told him bluntly. "And I know why you resurrected me as a vampire and I know you used Janos' heart to achieve it."

Acting on his own, Raziel's projected form manifested beside me. At the sight of him, Mortanious gasped in horror.

"You need not fear old friend. The day is soon coming when all will be at peace, humans, vampires and even Hylden." I assured him. "Your work will bear fruit, although it will take longer than you originally thought."

"Then I can die in peace." The Necromancer sighed with the most intensely relieved look on his face. "This closure is what I have been praying for. Now I can face my appointed fate with pride, knowing I have done my part."

"With respect, I am afraid you have one final task." I laid Vorador's body and head down before him. "This vampire must be revived. He is essential to the future and in order to succeed, I need him brought back to life." I moved the head and placed it over the stump where it used to be.

"Can you do it? Revive him like you did with Kain?" Raziel asked.

"How long has he been dead?" Mortanious asked, kneeling beside the body.

"Half an hour at most." I told him. "Is it possible?"

"It is…" He stated. "But if I use any of my necromantic magic, the demon possessing me will sense it. I can not risk him awakening. If he see's you…" He paused. "Wait… I can use this." He reached into his red robes and withdrew what looked like a playing card.

I had seen such a thing before. It was a card empowered with dark magic, created by the necromancer himself, a card representing the Heart of Darkness.

These cards were not as powerful as the original relic but they did allow the resurrection of a vampire provided that vampire had died recently.

I had found these cards more than useful during my journeys.

He laid the card across Vorador's chest, the picture of the black heart face down. On top of this he laid two fingers and instantly I felt a rush of energy pass from him, through the card and into the corpse.

There was a flash of light from the cut neck and instantly, tendons and nerves lanced upward and connected with the head. The bones began to knit back together and with a loud, sickening crunch the head reconnected.

The skin remoulded itself over the cut and Vorador was once again in one piece.

The ancient vampire gasped out, crying out for air as his lungs started working again.

"It is best that he does not see me." I stated and gently laid a hand on him. Before Vorador could awaken and open his eyes, I teleported him away, moving him through space.

I knew where to place him. The city of Meridian lay to the south, from there he could direct the Cabal against the Sarafan Order and be out of the way so that the events at the pillars would go ahead unhampered by interference.

"Given that you are as you say from the future…." Mortanious started. "Then I am free to assume that you refuse the sacrifice." His tone was nondescript and made it hard to guess precisely what he was implying.

"This is the trap the Hylden engineered." I told him. "Moebius killed off all other vampires but me. If I had accepted the sacrifice then my kind would now be extinct. That alone would have damned the pillars and released the Hylden, plunging Nosgoth further into decay."

Some impulse made me sympathetically lay a hand on his shoulder.

"It will take Nosgoth over two hundreds years and myself ten times that but the life this land used to know will be reborn."

Mortanious smiled.

"Although I will never look upon such golden days, I will be content." Suddenly he looked alert. "You must go. The alchemist approaches. He comes to confront me and he must not see you."

It was in this moment that I realised this would be the last time I would ever see him. Over the centuries I had thought of the necromancer as many things, most of them not pleasant but in this instant I did not relish the fact that within the hour he would be facing his death.

"Farewell then Necromancer."

Spreading my wings, I flew up into the air, following the pillars up higher and higher into the sky.

Once more I was gripped by a sensation that told me to fly higher. This was the same compulsion that had told me to go to the Vampire Citadel after I managed to escape from the demon dimension the first time.

And again today when it told me where to go when I had retrieved Vorador's body. This time however the compulsion was intensely strong and I got the feeling that this would be the last time it would direct me.

Lightning flashed around me and I came to a stop. Dark clouds began to gather around the pillars and I realised that was once again at the instant where the fate of Nosgoth was decided.

Waiting for me, high above Nosgoth where only the pillar's reached was Sabre. His white wings spread, he smiled sadistically at me as I came to face him.

"This is the moment of destiny for all Kain, and no better time for us to fight." He stated. "While you're younger self fights the Hylden Lord possessing Mortainious below, you and I shall duel and when these pillars die so will one of us!"


	65. Boss 5: Sabre part 3

This was the moment where the fate of Nosgoth had been decided… twice.

Here, in this moment where two beings clashed for supremacy would the election be finalised.

Our blades smacked against each other in mid air, sparks flying back to highlight our faces as we scolded at each other before breaking away.

Sabre was without a doubt the most gifted and skilled opponent I had ever faced. He was amazing agile, able to dodge around my swings with ease and strong enough to retaliate so much that his own blows sent shivers through me.

He was a master of both magical combat and swordsmanship and had expertly integrated both techniques into a form of aerial combat that left me struggling even to find a way through his defences.

The storm raged around us as below us, on the seat of the pillars themselves my other younger self battled as well; fighting the possessed Mortaineous.

Bolts of lightning illuminated the almost perpetual night, some of them come dangerously close to hitting the two of us as Sabre and I duelled in mid air.

"You've lost, you know that don't you?" I asked him as our two swords clashed together and we tried to overpower each other. "Even if you beat me… the others have won their elections. You are alone."

Sabre simply grinned and his new neon blue eyes were alight with humour.

"The pillar of balance is all I require. That nexus of creation will make me near all powerful. Your circle will die and I will raise their successors myself, train them to be perfect disciples of my lord!"

My punch caught him unawares and stunned, he left himself wide open for an uppercut that sent him spiralling through the air.

Unleashing a spell I discharged a bolt of lightning at him.

The spell was barely affective. I had already depleted most of my mana unleashing my earlier attack and without reverses I was coming up short.

Sabre simply slapped the lightning aside with a shield spell and drew his own runes in the air, calling upon magical fire that manifested as a ring around me; a band of flames that started constricting in an attempt to entrap me.

Grasping the Reaver tight in both hands, I called upon the elemental power of Water and with a single swing turned the flames to steam.

Flying through it, I charged at Sabre bringing the Reaver around in an arch. Sabre parried the strike away with his own sword and threw his head forward, head butting me backwards.

His kick caught me by surprise and sent me flying down until I managed to regain my composure.

Sabre came at me again before I was ready to defend myself, his sword prepared to run me through and coming to my defence; Raziel's projected form manifested. My first born pulled down his cowl in his attempt to pull a scary face.

It stunned Sabre just long enough for me to ready the sword, flying up with a slicing arch.

The tip of the sword caught Sabre across the chest, slicing through the flesh on his chest just over his heart.

He gagged and carried out in pain and I could see that the blood flying out was not black but rather, like his eyes, neon blue and glowing.

I surmised that up until now, throughout our various encounters, I had been fighting his human disguise and that is where the black blood had come from.

Now I was fighting the real Sabre, a being created by the Elder God to replace Moebius.

Growling, he clenched his teeth as he healed the wound shut and turned about to face me.

"Temper, Temper." I told him slyly. He took a moment to regain some of his gentleman like charm and he managed a grin of his own but not quite as large as the one he had been wearing up until now.

With clashed again, our swords blurs around each other. The voices inside my head were still murmuring, speaking to me so quickly it was impossible to hear what they were saying.

It was intensely distracting and in a duel with such an opponent I could not afford to have distractions.

Blocking them out as best I could, I fought with Sabre looking for some sort of flaw in his fighting style. Perhaps it was because I was unused to fighting in the air that I could not see one, despite how adaptable I knew I could be.

"When you see Moebius, do be sure to give him my warmest regards." Sabre told me, flying in close with a thrust that caught me across the side. I grunted, pressing my teeth together to block out the pain at the cut I only just managed to avoid making fatal.

"Why not tell him yourself?" I asked, bringing my elbow back and slamming it into his face to knock him to the side.

Flying back to a safe distance I realized that this was not an opponent I could defeat by attrition. Sabre would simply heal any wound I inflicted upon him, regenerate himself and I would be left back where I started.

The only way to defeat Sabre was to complete and literally destroy him. Every part of his body had be vaporized.

I was out of energy and the only weapon that had been affective against him thus far was the Reaver Blade. I glanced down at the sword in my hand. An unleashing of its spiritual energy before had destroyed Sabre's human disguise.

It was going to need more than that again to defeat him.

"I will give you all the power contained with the sword." Raziel told me telepathically. "The elements as well as the spirit. Unleash it all… at once."

I had never contemplated that. It seemed insane. Combined, the various elemental powers of the Reaver was a tremendous amount of energy. I doubted I had the ability to control it all.

Looking up, I could see that Sabre was reaching the same conclusion with me. He did not wish to drag the fight out any longer.

We could not remain here any longer than the fight below us allowed. The moment my younger self chose to damn the pillars, one way or another, this fight could end.

We both wanted to finish this…now.

I held the Reaver up with a sudden twitch of my hands, revealing the challenge and Sabre accepted; copying my move with his own sword.

There was silence for a moment and it ended as a bolt of lightning crackled across the sky.

Wings beating hard we flew at each other hard, swords held back at the ready.

In those final seconds I could feel the elements within the Reaver surging to the surface one by one.

Fire, the element aligned with the aspects of Nature and conflict blazed down the blade.

Following closely was Water, combined from the aspects of States and Death, the polar opposite of fire.

Air, made from the aspects of Mind and Dimension was a surging rush of power that added itself to the growing collective.

The power of Earth made from the aspects of Time and Energy was like the stead bedrock upon which the mountains themselves stood.

The primary elements of light and darkness came together within and added themselves to the energies sparking light lightning down the Reaver blade.

But I didn't stop there. Calling upon the energies of the completed balance emblem, I combined them with those of the elements and lightning itself came to my aid.

Finally, boasting the power a hundred fold, came the purifying power of spirit.

I could feel the Reaver tremble in my grasp and my own body almost buckled under the weight of all that energy. It took every ounce of will power I had merely to point it all in the right direction

Sabre's own blade responded in kind, becoming ablaze with an unearthly blue fire, a bright and unendurable inferno.

"Come then Kain…let us decide the fate of the world and ourselves!" He declared and with a single powerful flap of hi wings he soared forward.

I responded in kind, flying forth with all the speed and power I could muster; committing myself to this single charge.

The voices in my head voice to a deafening height and within them I could hear the voices of those I had killed and they reminded me of my journey, the long road I had trudged in order to arrive at this single moment.

The voices of the assassins who had killed the mortal Kain.

The voices of the Hordes of the Nemesis I had battled long ago.

The voices of the Sarafan knights I had torn the life from within Meridian.

The voices of many Hylden who had died when I closed their gate to the Demon dimension.

The voices of the Razielim, pleading with me, demanding to know why I had put their entire clan to the torch.

The voices of the vampire hunters from Moebius' crusade.

The voices each and every single guardian I had killed in my first quest to restore the pillars, even those resurrected and still alive in this time, such as Malek.

And in those voices there was a resolution. Despite my skilled opponent, despite the voices constant nagging, I would not be stopped. I had come too far, forsaking so much and regretting all.

I would not be killed here during the final testing of my engraved pathos.

Our blades met in mid air and slicing through Sabre's blue inferno, I snapped his sword and plunged the Reaver with every ounce of strength I could muster directly into his chest; the tip bursting out between his wings with a spray off glowing blue blood.

The sheer force of my attack sent the two of us flying towards the pillars until the emerged tip sank directly into the cracked pillar of Balance and pinned there Sabre cried out in pain.

In that single instant, far below us my younger self had also won the battle and decided to reject Ariel's machinations chose not to sacrifice himself. As the shockwave hit us, our surroundings warp as we were transported back through time back to the present, where our election was to take place.

The energies burning through Sabre from the inside out, all he could do was scream as light shot forth from his eyes and mouth.

With a wrenching, I tore the Reaver back from his body and freed from it I let him drop down from that great height.

Trailing white feathers he dropped down, spinning as he fell until with a loud sickening crunch he impacted the ground at the base of the pillar.

I took a moment to catch my breath before slowly gliding down, following him as I gently came back to the ground.

Sabre was still alive, at least barely. Parts of his skin was still bursting open. The energy I'd pushed inside his body was slowly burning him away from the inside. It was a slow death and not the instant end I had wanted but practically in produced the end result. The decomposition of his body was happening quicker than Sabre could regenerate.

"I…I do not fear death!" Sabre stated, smoke and steam rising from between his teeth.

"'Tis a pity." I told him. "I've been there before. There's much to fear."

Sabre coughed forward, spitting his glowing blue blood forth.

"I go to the embrace of my master. He will grant me life once more."

I sighed and shook my head.

"That is what Moebius said… and you master granted him nothing." In that single instant I felt extreme pity for this being. Whether he would like what I had to say next or not, he deserved to know the truth.

Gently I laid the Reaver across him, bathing him with the purifying spirit and as I had done with Janos I showed him my memories.

He saw the true face of the Elder God, the true form and intentions of the one he had called God.

In return, I saw his memories and I realized that I had met Sabre before.

Many years ago… when I was still human….

Sabre had been a hunter, a man who prowled the wilderness of Nosgoth for his prey. Desperate for food one winter, he had had no choice but to accept a job from a mysterious man in a black robe. He and others were to ambush a man in the village of Ziegsturhl and kill him.

With no other options left to him that winter, Sabre accepted and he had been the one to knock the poor targeted man down and drive a sword through his back.

"You…you were the one who?" I started, raising a hand to the scar on my chest.

The memories continued to flow and I saw that not long after this, Sabre and all others who helped him ambush the poor man were hunted down and killed by a vampire.

Sabre himself had died with a sword blade between his ribs and it was there that his soul was delivered up to the Elder God, who toyed with it and twisted it until Sabre was a reflection of his inner mind.

"No… a lie all a…" Sabre gasped as the truth was made clear to him. "No…all…all meaningless."

Without another word he fell back and crumbled, his body dissolving into dust that sprawled out across the base of the pillars.

"It was my fault." I stated after a moment of silence had past. "I made him what he was. He was a good man, just trying to survive and I…"

Raziel said nothing and the eight restored pillars before me were indifferent to my regret.


	66. Boss 6: Elder God part 1

A new voice was added to the multitude of those whispering to me, a new signer in the choir of the dead.

I had beaten Sabre…. But now I was not sure the victory was worth it.

"How many does that make now Raziel?" I asked, sliding down to one knee. "How many people do you think are cursing me from beyond the grave?

"Countless." He replied as his projected form manifested next to me, refusing to sugar-coat the answer. "But do not forget how far you have already come. Now is not the time for this conversation."

"Whoever imagined a Vampire could grow tired of killing?" I asked out load. The blood hunger was gone, but still I was required to take lives.

It was something that had not once before bothered me, but now I had stopped to look back at the path I had been treading, I found it smeared with blood.

And many of those whose blood had been spilled were faceless strangers to me, whose names I would never know.

But Raziel was right.

Many more would be added to the nameless list unless I did what I came here to do. I stared glanced up and the ruins of the Pillar of Balance lay there before me.

I could sense the anticipation in all nine of them. They were a mere stones throw away from being restored.

Gathering whatever will I could muster I stepped over Sabre's body and advanced over towards the Pillar with which I was soon to be bound.

I was a pure and uncorrupted Guardian, a Vampire removed from the curse.

I was the perfect candidate for selection.

The Pillar would have no choice but to accept me.

Gently, I reached out and placed my hand against the surface of the cracked grey marble.

My soul was the token, the gift from the pillar given to me at my birth, the item that marked me as a Guardian.

I let it hover between my own body and the pillar, acted as a intermediary between the two.

The Pillar did not respond. .

Or it couldn't at least. It was trying to, but something was preventing it from connecting with me.

I tried again and once more nothing happened. The pillar remained in its compromised state.

What had I missed? Why wasn't it working?

A low pitch laugh erupted across the sky and I glanced up, feeling a presence around us; magnified in this one place.

The Eyes of the Elder were on me.

"You forget so easily Kain." My enemy laughed at me. "Do you not recall you already learned how these Pillars work? They can only be whole and pure once they have a prisoner to bind in the demon dimension and you assisted in releasing the Hylden from that very abyss."

I growled.

He was right.

The seer had already explained that the Pillars needed a sacrifice. They would only perform their function of healing the land if they had a victim to place inside that hellish realm.

That had been their double bladed function since the end of the ancient war.

I would never be able to heal Nosgoth as long as Hylden remained here.

But perhaps that was too hasty a statement. The Pillars held the Hylden inside the demon realm for so long because that had been what the ancients had demanded of them.

The sacrifice this time did not have to specifically be their race. It could be anything with the equivalent life force of a race.

Then it struck me. The simplistically of the idea, suddenly flung into my mind by destinies hand left me awe struck.

In that instant my course my path would take was crystal clear.

I glanced back at Raziel. The expression on his face showed that he was thinking along similar lines.

"Would that work?" He asked.

"I do not see any reason to the contrary." Thoughts raced through my head, desperately searching for something. Anything to make it possible. I found nothing to stop it from being so and more than enough evidence to suggest that the task could be accomplished. "We have not much time." I spread my wings and took to the air.

I traveled as quickly as I could, sliding through the clouds as I soured north.

A short distance away from the pillars was an ancient entrance that lead down into the Earth. It was known to the humans was the 'Underworld-Passage.' None of their kind had ever been able to open it.

Nor would they ever been able to. It was an entrance crafted by Ancient vampire and would open only for their species.

I final task I needed to accomplish could not be done at the base of the Pillars, that I was certain of. Raziel had shown my, through his memories, the place I needed to be.

"Something is amiss here." Raziel told me, glancing up at the sky. It had darkened considerably, as if a storm was imminent. There was something more to it, a build up of energy that was about to be released.

Something was wrong.

The stone doors have buried by rubble were easily dislodged and I advanced into the stone corridor beyond.

"Come Kain, I am waiting for you. Come… come down to the depths" The voice of the Elder laughed as I descended below the earth, passing through into the place deemed as the 'underworld'.

This maze of caves and tunnels lead down, passing under the ground and through darkness. Shades, the minions of the Elder inhabited this place. Formless creatures made completely out of shadows.

Here they thrived and once they had me in their domain, they attacked with full force.

The Reaver ached up, carving them as if they were flesh and bone. Soon they were in retreat as I chased them further and further into the bowls of the earth.

Here, in this place; the borders between the Physical Realm and the Spectral realm were blurred. Crossing over from the realm in which spirits are bond came ravenous hunters, Slugah and Reapers; soul devouring wraiths. Life forms that had forced to evolve op their current state either to serve the Elder, or to out compete him for the energy of the spirits.

I must have traveled quiet a distance under the ground before I finally came to the place I needed to be.

"Why the delay Kain? I grow impatient. This end is one neither of us can avoid so let us put it behind us now." The voice told me as I reached the chamber underneath the pillars, the murals depicting the affliction of the ancients now all by completely destroyed by time.

The water surrounding the small island in the centre through which lanced the cracked grey pillars was gone. Tentacles were wrapped through the entire chamber, all feeding up from a cracked hole in the bottom. The roots of the pillars were flying through that into a large chamber directly below.

Gently I glided down through this whole and came to rest on a stone ledge. A long row of stone stairs carved into the rock itself lead down to… I stopped and stared.

Here at last, I beheld the very heart of my true enemy.

"Welcome vampire, you took your time getting here." Descending down the stone stairs, I looked up at the gigantic underground cavern.

A canyon concealed within the depths of Nosgoth, a crack in the earth that could very well lead down to its very core. It was so wide across I could not even see the far end. The rocks beneath my feet were covered in a green, slime like moss one might expect to find in a rock pool.

I was aware of dozens, no, hundreds of neon blue eyes staring at me from the shadow, each on attached to slithering tentacles that clung to the walls like the limbs of an octopus. Jutting out over the dark never ending abyss into the depths of the earth was a catwalk made of stone.

It led up to a large rock platform with a polished flat surface. Lancing down from the ceiling were the roots of the Pillars themselves just like in the chamber above.

Each one falling into position on the platform just as at the base of the Pillars. Slimy green tentacles snaked up from the darkness below, wrapping around the pillars like vines; clinging to the cracked grey marble refusing to let go.

"So, this is the heart of the Underworld?" I asked out load, approaching the platform and glaring around at the chamber around me.

"The 'Underworld' refers to many perceptions Kain." Was the reply that echoed around the cavern. I tried to determine in which direction it was coming from but the echoes refused to give a point of origin. "Some believe it to be the Spectral Realm, others think of it as a fiery pit where sinners are damned for eternity, while another perceives as an endless maze of tunnels and caverns underneath Nosgoth.

But it truth, the name refers to all these aspects and more.

I AM the Underworld!" All the eyes there were watching me opened wide; their soft blue glow illuminating the cavern.

I watched as dozens of souls began to spiral down from the top of the pillars down towards the canyon floor. Swirling as if caught in a whirlpool they were all dragged down, deeper and deeper before vanishing completely into the darkness.

Human, vampire and Hylden souls alike, all crying out in agony as they were sucked dry of their energy; every ounce of it siphoned off to feed the spore like mass that clung to the walls of this chamber like a plant.

"And this is where I spin the wheel." Finally, the canyon wall directly ahead of me began sliding apart. Pieces of dust undisturbed for centuries started falling, crumbling down as the pieces of the wall slid aside. Suddenly I realized that it was not a wall, by the lid of a colossal eye.

Larger than anything I had ever behold before; The Elder's main eye glared down at me.

"Tell me, why did you let me get this far?" I asked. "Given what kind of force you can command. I'm guessing if you really wanted to, you could have kept me out of this chamber." The massive eye blinked once. "You must know what I intend on doing."

"An admittedly bold move Kain, but ultimately quite futile." He replied. "You intend on banishing **_ME_**. Making **_ME_** the sacrifice the Pillars require in order to regenerate." The Elder chuckled deeply. "Clever Kain, but you forget that in order to banish someone you need to know their name.

Only once a name is uttered can the Pillars determine what to banish and what to leave alone." The eye seemed to lean forward to stare down at me. "And not even the ancient vampires knew **_MY_** real name."

My fingers tightened around the hilt of the Reaver. "I let you get this far because I want you to stand on the brink of victory and despair as you loose everything and I wanted to see you myself when that happened.

Curing your kind of the Hylden's affliction was a mistake." He carried on. "Now they are more vulnerable than ever. I will be able to destroy them all within a single day." I managed a smile in response.

"If that is so, then why were you so insistent before that we remained cursed?" He jabbed the tip of the Reaver towards him. "Perhaps you knew something about my species that we ourselves did not."

"You are too narrow-minded, Kain, to appreciate the subtly of my divine plans." The Elder replied, all the eyes expect the largest blinking in unison.

"Oh, I don't think I am." He stepped forward and lowered the sword. "If the vampires became mortal again, we would simply die eventually by old age and be far more vulnerable to human weapons then before." I stared back into that giant eye. "But if we had, then you would no longer have a scapegoat which you could rally the humans against." The large raven black pupil in the centre of the blue eye narrowed to a near vertical silt. "They would not fear us anymore and so your precious Sarafan would have nothing with which to justify their draconian rule."

"You're certainly perceptive Kain, I'll give you that." The elder rasped.

"But it goes beyond that doesn't it?" I carried on with a widening smile. "When the vampire Oracles foretold the coming of the Scion of Balance, you saw more in the vision than they did.

You saw signs, road markers and pointers that predicted that eventually you would loose your control and perhaps even your life.

The curing of the vampires was one of those signs and so, desperate to prevent the prophecy from coming true, you did everything in your power to ensure that we either remained cursed or became extinct."

Raziel's projected form manifested itself next to me again. He stared up at the Elder defiantly.

"But now it's over, _master. _The vampires are their own race once more and your Sarafan armies have been crushed."

The Elder chuckled lightly in response.

Something suddenly felt very wrong. The air around us changed pitch as if something monumental to existence itself had been altered. Everything just seemed wrong… a sensation I could not explain.

"Sabre and his Sarafan Druids have already served their purpose by creating death on a large enough scale, providing me with enough souls to begin my new Genesis." Even as that ominous statement was being said, the ground beneath my feet suddenly began to tremble. Dust and small fragments of rock started to fall from the ceiling, scattering down all around as they were jarred loose by the earthquake.

"What is happening?" Raziel demanded.

"The beginning….of the end."


	67. Boss 6: Elder God part 2

The final details of the peace treaty were being hammered out and Ewoden had withdrawn from the proceedings having already put forward Seroli interests in this matter. It was fully expected the Hylden would be given land along the coastline, the vampires the northern highlands and mountains while the humans would take the forests and plains.

The demons were another matter however. Messengers would be sent to the encampment outside the ruined city of Avernus for their leader to give his thoughts on the matter. Integrating demons into a multi-cultural society might have been somewhat difficult but it wasn't expected that the demons themselves would opt for it. They would much prefer, as was their nature, a far more isolationist approach to life.

Standing on the battlements Ewoden looked out over the city and wondered, briefly, how on earth he was going to lead the Seroli as Ramak was insisted he do.

He was no leader. All of his life he'd been a solider, a simple follower of orders.

"You underestimate yourself." A voice told him over the Whisper. "The Seroli are without leaders, their numbers thinned and their morale low. They need a leader such as yourself."

He felt a pair of arms wrap around him lovingly from behind, faint black feathers brushing against him.

"So tell me… Chieftain Ewoden… where will you led them?" Sally asked out load.

"To be frank, I honestly do not know." He replied without looking back.

"William wishes to take whatever vampires will follow him north to restore his old kingdom, while the clan chiefs which to spread out although they'll not move a muscle without authorization from Kain.

People are picking out stakes… it is best if you get one early."

"Sally… I'm not interested in leading." He told her, turning around to face the vampire he loved. Even with blue skin she was unbelievable beautiful. "I just want some quiet place to live away from all of this death….with you."

Without even thinking about it, he sank down onto one knee.

"Sally… will you marry me?"

She held a hand to her mouth in utter astonishment, emotion filling her large golden eyes.

That single moment of silence seemed to last for a lifetime.

Before either of them could say anything, all of a sudden the sky overhead darkened.

Thick black clouds suddenly began to gather, cover the sky almost completely and blocking out the light of the full moon.

Distant thunder began to crack across the sky, followed by periodic flashes of dark red lightning.

Bolts started crashing down on top of the city, carving scars in buildings and streets where they struck.

"Wha…" The former knight began as the heavens unleashed their full force on the city.

"What is the meaning of this?" T'kral demanded as the ground beneath him trembled, cracks started spreading through the council chamber where the discussions where taking place. The windows cracked and smashed open one by one, glass spraying into the room and across the table.

"Sire, what is happening?!" Vorador asked as suddenly green flashes started erupting in and around the castle, dozens in the streets and many, many more over Nosgoth itself.

Before Janos could answer, a green flash burst open just above the table and out of came a creature that had the dimensions of a crab but as large as a horse with a massive mouth full of serrated teeth.

It screeched angrily before lashing out, stamping the jagged stump of one leg through Zephon's leg before he could react.

All over Wilendorf, these crab like monsters were emerging from the Spectral Realm. The barriers between the realms of the living and the dead were now so weakened that one concentrated and focused push was all that was required for the Elder God's soul collecting minions to venture forth into the world of the material.

The elements turned against Nosgoth all across the land.

The thick black clouds in the sky over the entrance to the canyon to Dark Eden were beginning to churn, swirling down as a tornado was carved into being.

The bodies of Sarafan clumped there were torn off the ground and hurled into the air along with the dust in the canyon entrance.

Red lightening sourced the skies, burning down through the air to scar the ground to the west and rivers broke open across the east.

Whatever foliage was left alive in Nosgoth during its long decay suddenly started dying in masse. Trees withered and fell apart, grass and shrubs during jet black before crumbling into charred dust.

Along the southern coast of Nosgoth, the sea withdrew; sliding back to reveal over a mile of flatbed. Slowly the approach of the wave began, gathering the full force of the sea behind it as it soured on a mountainous wall of water. Even when it met with the coast it refused to break, the wave simply carried on inland. Any costal settlements were wiped off the map instantly as the met with a solid wall of water.

The walls of Meridian held, but only for a moment before they were completely overwhelmed and the torrent crashed down through the streets, filling them as if they were purpose built canals.

The wave carried on up the river that emptied out into the great southern lake. The ruins of the first Sarafan Stronghold was nearly instantly washed away like they had never even been there. Carrying on north east, the wave finally unloaded its full force on the river and lake surrounding Willendorf itself.

The waters rose past flood levels and began tipping out into the streets.

The face of Nosgoth was dramatically redrawn as the sea claimed mile after mile.

Where the flood had not left its mark, the storm, tornados and earthquakes tore up the earth claiming dozens of lives in moments.

The agents of the Elder, unhampered by the flood and elemental devastation set about their task, harvesting the souls of those dying and channeling them back to their master.

Whoever who got in their way they carved up, adding more to their collection of souls.

"So tell me now vampire; How does it feel to come so far; only to have victory snatched from you as you stand just before the finishing line? How dose the delicious despair taste?" The Elder demanded off me.

"What have you done?" I demanded. The ground beneath my feet was shaking as if so much I was having trouble keeping my balance.

"It is not what I have done." Was the reply. "You alone are responsible for Nosgoth's demise." Two large tentacles soured up from the darkness below, forming a circle in the air before me. "Behold." Within that circle images conjured themselves. I watched in horror as the land was engulfed by the encroaching sea and as towns and cities were torn asunder by the elements now in full force.

"Nosgoth shall have not the slow, lingering death your prolonged existence forced upon it." The elder carried on. "Now, by my mercy, it will have one final flourish before it drowns." As more and more people in Nosgoth died by the second, the swirling vortex of souls around us increased in mass and size.

I could hear their screams, not just around me but inside my head as well. Hundred, even thousands of voices called, whispered, talked, yelled at me. A blur of insane words I could not understand.

"My god…" Raziel started, sensing the torment of the souls around him. "He's not pulling them through the wheel. He's absorbing them." I watched as the tentacles and general mass of the Elder began increasing, his foul body twisting and growing as it feed on the souls, sucking them into itself and storing their energy.

The walls began to crack as he started becoming too large for the room within this cavern to hold it.

I could clearly see what he was doing.

Using the energy of the souls he was absorbing instead of sending back to be reincarnated he was provoking nature, which because of the state of the pillars was already weak, into violently reacting.

With the barriers between the Spectral and Material realms weakened, his agents emerged to harvest the souls.

Using the power the Wheel of Fate had accumulated over the centuries, augmented in the recent wars and now by this one final act of destruction, he was killing Nosgoth!

"The wars you foolishly fought with the humans and Hylden have given me power the likes of which you can't even imagine. And now that the flow of history has been changed I am free to cause this devastation without consequence to future events.

Because of you, this land shall have no glorious rebirth through the Wheel. " The Elder declared between bouts of sadistic laughter. "But now I permit it to have one final scream of outrage before I leave this miserable continent behind!"

* * *

-

The coastline of Nosgoth was now completely gone. The river leading from the southern lake into the sea had overflowed to completely engulf the towns of Ziegstuhrl and Provance. Any survivors had led to higher ground, others washed away to vanish without a trace.

Meridian was only saved from completely destruction by being on high ground and surrounded by its gigantic wall which held the flood back long enough for it to vent some of its anger before it swept in.

The lake of Tears swelled, bursting its banks and pouring its water into the encircling deluge surrounding the town of Nachtholm. The islands on which the buildings sat almost seemed to sink as the water claimed more land. The town's people helped those they could onto the boats at the dock, even the Sarafan guards who were forced to ditch their heavy armored uniforms in order to run faster.

In the north, tornados, twisters and cyclones began channeling down from the sky; tearing up the ground and leaving utter chaos in their wake. The eastern foothills and mountains were shaken by intense earthquakes, the Sarafan garrison castle that stood like oppressive beacons all began falling; the brick and mortar crumbling to the ground. The slaves in the mines, recently freed by the rebels; all were herded back to the relative safety of the city walls as nature itself continued its barrage upon Nosgoth.

"Foolish little creature!" The Elder declared, tentacles flying through the air; all of them arching down to crush me as I soured along the cavern wall with the Reaver in my grasp. "You can not best me, least of all here!" I slashed across the wall, carving a slashed mark across dozens of tentacles and eyes; green life blood, forged by the energy of the soul itself, leaking out of the inflicted wound.

Unfazed; the massive green limbs kept up their assault, slamming down towards me. Dodging them I slashed at the tentacles as they soured past, severed the tips sending them flying across the chamber.

From the eyes came bolts of compressed magic, charged spheres of power that flew through the air following me like a swarm of angry insects. As they came near I fired my own telekinetic attacks to counteract them.

Unable to fire of enough to counter them all I was forced to dodge, sliding through the air the best my wings would allow.

The Elder laughed as he toyed with me, occasionally throwing an expendable tentacle in my way to slow me down.

All the while, the chaos he incited attacked Nosgoth in full force. A contingency plan, put into place just in case his Sarafan puppets were ever usurped. Now that his control over the land was in jeopardy, he opted to destroy it, rather than allow anyone to live outside his influence.

"Fly little vampire, fly while you can." The largest, building sized eye; followed my every movement. "Those wings will not carry you to salvation."

I rebounded off the side of a wall, sweeping the Reaver across my side as I wide, the blade arching back slicing through the magical attacks; rending them null before they struck.

"This is my fault." I growled from between clenched teeth. "I gave you everything you needed to accomplish this when I set out to conquer Nosgoth." Self loathing and hate caused me to tighten by grip around the Reaver's hilt. "Even meddling in history after I learned how stupid I was being, all I was doing was helping you destroy this land."

"So now you finally understand." A large tentacle over twenty times my size shot up into the air casting a shadow over me. "Whatever your intentions, all your kind ever do is my will."

The limb came down towards me, threatening to strike. The Reaver blade met it before then, severing the limb and sending it back slithering into the darkness.

"This is my sin. So this is my redemption!" Beating my wings I soured towards the giant eye with the Reaver held ready to strike.

I forced everything into this one strike; my loathing over striking Umah down, the foolishness of conquest and even the resentment of being controlled like a marionette by this aquatic monstrosity.

The Elder laughed, before that giant eye glowed bright neon blue. As if invisible hands had grabbed me I stopped dead still in mid air, before a compressed bolt of magic smashed straight into my face.

Several came flying at me, one striking me across the chest; while another two impacted on my wings. It was only then he released his telekinetic grip and let me fall down to the stone platform with smoke trailing from my body.

"Cease this defiance Kain and face the truth. You have lost." Dozens of small tentacles slithered like snakes up and over the edges of the platform, moving straight towards me; several of them binding my arms and legs to the floor and others restraining my wings.

The Reaver was bounded in their grasp and dragged out of my reach.

"I will remain here just long enough to accumulate the strength I require to leave this land." He told me as I forced an eye open. "And you may live just long enough to see the destructive fruits of your own endeavours." I struggled against his grasp but the tentacles simply tightened their grip, several more wrapping themselves around my waist, pinning me to the stone floor completely.

Two of his limbs moved up to form another circle, the image of destruction happening all over Nosgoth transpiring within. "Lie there in defeat, knowing that if you had simply sacrificed your soul to the Pillar of Balance none of this would have come to pass."


	68. Boss 6: Elder God part 3

Raziel, leader of Clan Razielim, was for once unsure of himself. He, along with the other clans chiefs and their personal guard, were flying west with all haste; braving the merciless maelstrom.

Queen Umah, (until they heard otherwise from Kain himself, no clan chieftain would dispute the claim), was leading them in their master's absence

Turel was almost directly behind her, leading his transformed troops through the air tight formation.

The source of the chaos reigning over the land had to be contained, at least according to their informant.

"Are you utterly certain about this?" Raziel asked, calling down to the two vampires flying just below.

"Completely." Janos Audron replied. "We must get to the pillars with all haste." The vampire next to him was having trouble keeping aloft in the savage winds around them, occasionally tipping to the side or loosing a little speed.

"Do not fight the air currents Vorador, use them." He called back.

"What air currents?" Vorador asked, beating his new wings twice to regain some group and fly alongside his sire. The tornados spinning through the land they had just left behind had all but completely destroyed the flow of air leaving flight difficult, even dangerous, for those inexperienced with wings.

Sally was right behind, having some difficultly controlling her wings in the ever changing air. Neither she nor her sire were used to such conditions yet.

Moving on the ground below, in lupine form, Ewoden was keeping up with ease. With the enhanced speed and agility of the wolf he was easily leaping over the man obstacles that were in his way.

The Hylden were heading west along with them, right alongside their demon allies.

T'kral and the leaders of the other Houses were up front, the Seer there with them as well. Surprisingly, Malek was also riding with them.

Many of their escort metal beasts, which the Hylden called robots, unable to deal with the harsh winds were sucked back to be consumed by the cyclone that was encroaching on them from behind.

"What is happening sire?" Vorador asked, holding an arm up to shield his eyes from the stinging wind.

"Unless we hurry to the Pillars; Armageddon."

With water pouring through the streets of Willendorf, the people retreated as fast as they could across the bridge even as if was crumbled with the torrent beneath it. The royal Militia herded those they could inside the fortress gates which the wave swept over the stragglers.

"What are your orders your majesty?" The captain of the guard asked as the waters battered away at the door, his men putting their shoulder against it keep it closed with reinforcements were fetched to strengthen the barrier. Princess Alicia stood at the top of the stairs leading up from the lobby. With her father dead she was now the ruling monarch and with the Sarafan Order's collapse she was now in control of Willendorf, or what was left of it.

"Take the citizens up to the higher levels; hold off the waters as long as you can." She told them, her eyes still ringed red from tears but despite this she never looked more determined.

"Wait, your majesty where are you going?" The captain called out as she walked away from her guard towards the winged vampire waiting for her at the end of the banister for her, perched on the open window. Sparks of lightning would charge past now and then, highlighting his handsome features.

He offered her a cloven hand.

"I am going to end this. I am going to claim what is mine and stop this madness." She took it and a moment later the pair of them was hurtling out the window and into the maelstrom of the chaos.

-

* * *

I struggled against the Elder's grip, but too many of his limbs held me down. I couldn't break free and was forced to endure the torture of watching Nosgoth being destroyed, unable to lift a single finger to do anything about it.

As more and more people, humans, Vampires and even Hylden; died in the chaos, their souls feed the wheel, giving the Elder strength. More and more souls were being churned down through that agonizing vortex, their combined energy slowly swallowed bit by bit by the hideous life form.

The irony of this entire situation was that the Elder was right in saying he could not have arrived at this position had I not interfered in history. By going back and making the changes I desired, the timeline skewed off creating a reality in which Nosgoth was to be consumed.

This was his contingency plan. If all else failed, he had planned on absorbing the wheel of fate itself and destroy Nosgoth with its combined power.

I could still hear those souls even from within that hideous body, all screaming at me, a message from beyond the grave no doubt filled with malice, contempt and utter hatred of me.

I could not say they were mistaken in doing so.

I no more deserved to be Guardian of Balance any more than Sabre had, but I could not simply stand idly by while this calamity was allowed to occur.

I began pushing against the tentacles holding my left arm down, straining against them with every ounce of strength I could summon.

Lubricated by the slimy running along the tentacle, my arm slipped free and I reached out for the Reaver. It was out of my reach but I began telekinetically pulling it towards me, hilt extended.

"I think not Kain." The tentacles around the sword tightened their grip and pulled the weapon back while others began retraining my arm again.

"You are powerless against me. When will you accept this simple fact? Your actions, past, present and future…even your very own existence…are nothing when placed in comparison to mine."

A long, shrill howl suddenly echoed through the chamber and the Elder's large eye looked up from me in surprise.

It was the howl of a wolf, a single salute that hung like a high musical note above. As it died away, a transparent form emerged out of the ether on the edge of the platform. Slowly it gained solidarity before emerging completely.

Sitting before me was the Guardian of Midguard, the wolf who had instructed the Seer to bring the nine of us to the temple.

"You again? Just who are you?" The Elder asked; the massive lean leaning forward to peer down at the beast. "Why do you hamper me so?"

"You know me Elder, for we have met many times before." The wolf replied, staring up defiantly. Slowly it rose onto its hind legs and during the movement its body began to change.

First its height increased and the muscles and bones twisted into the positions of arms and legs. The fur seemed to melt away like thawing ice to be replaced by dark blue skin. From the shoulder blades came two large raven black wings, the feathers spreading out to reach the ankles.

"You…" The Elder rasped as the transformation completed itself and I lay there staring up at the image of a vampire. I had seen this one before as well. "Baal your defiance has been the most annoying of all creatures in this land."

"Baal?" I repeated.

Was this the spirit of the first Balance Guardian? The very architect of the pillars and my first predecessor?

"I defy you because it is what I must do." The ancient carried on ignoring me. "This is my punishment and my atonement. My penance." He turned to look back over his shoulder towards me.

Now I could look at his face I recognized him once more as the ancient who I warned me of my tasks during the vision I had experienced in the Midguard temple. We looked so alike it was almost like staring at a mirror image.

He smiled at me.

"Kain, you have come far to reach this place and time.

This is the moment foretold so long ago. A moment no amount of tampering with history can alter." Two large tentacles rose up out of the darkness, arching high to tower over the first balance guardian. "I have spent thousands of years safe guarding the Midguard temple, awaiting the arrival of those who would be sent to redeem our kind.

You are worthy of this task Kain."

"I am a killer and a murderer." I replied. "I am no divine saviour. Listen to those screams of anguished souls, all of them cursing my name."

The swirling vortex of souls around us, all being sucked down into the darkness to fed the mass encroached on the cavern walls, was hissing jumbled words that when spoken together sounded like the murmuring of countless people. All of their statements, thought non understandable, were directed at me.

"Look deep Kain. There is much beyond the façade of Kain the Destroyer. Find it and set yourself free. Another will speak to you after I depart. Heed him Kain, although it will go against your better judgement." Without another word he turned from me to face the Reaver, still engulfed in tentacles. "It is time Raziel, take my soul and reunite it with those who took up my burden."

"I will not permit this!" The elder hissed and the two tentacles soared down. Baal gently touched the top of the Reaver's hilt and instantly his body was engulfed in a strong white light. His body became the glow itself, which traveled down through the hilt and into the blade itself. The eyes of the ivory hilt glowed blue. Now all the souls of the Balance Guardians who had ever lived resided within the blade, save for me resided with the blade.

The Reaver's blade glowed intensely and smoke began rising from the tentacles as they clung to the sword. Hissing in both pain and anger the Elder was forced to drop the blade onto the ground.

Telekinetically wrenching it to me, I sliced down at the tentacles holding my body to the floor. Slash after slash was sent into those monstrous green limbs and finally I wrenched myself free, spreading my wings to throw his disgusting grip off.

The phantoms whispered soured through my head at such a rushed rate it was impossible to hear exactly what they were saying. All rushed words spoken by so many and said so fast it came out as a constant whisper.

Voices I could put faces to were intermixed with the countless humans I could not recall. There was Mortanious the Necromancer who had raised me from the grave. Nupraptor the Mentalist, the telepathic wizards whose madness had infected the circle. Magnus, my champion who I released from his ruined flesh and the torment of the Eternal Prison.

Even the Sarafan Lord himself was there, his soul crying out amongst the multitudes as they swirled through me head.

"Kain, Raziel!" A single voice managed through the chaos. Slowly my eyes opened as I recognised this speaker. "Kain… the name…the name that needs to be spoken!" A translucent form manifested before me, an old man in a hood and sorcerer robes. The figure '8' was scared into his forehead.

"You…" I began, my hand tightening around the Reaver. Here was another who had fallen by my hand… more than once. "Baal wished me to speak with you?"

"You dare defy the Wheel, Moebius?" The Elder demanded as the central massive eye closed and then opened, glaring down at the spectre. The Time Streamer's spirit was barely holding itself together, his outline wavering as if I were seeing him through air full of intense heat. "Your time is over. Accept it. Turn the Wheel."

The tentacles engulfing the chamber quivering at the intrusion of a soul that had somehow managed to break through the cycle that sustained the horrific mass.

The specter of the Time Streamer ignored the long slimy limbs as dozens of them snaked towards him, sliding out of dark crevices and moving towards him.

"The name Kain, listen to us. Know it… you are both a stones throw away from ending it!" Before he could say anything more, the tentacles wrapped around him.

"You expect me to trust you?" I demanded.

I had more reason to hate Moebius, in both life and death, more than anyone else in all of Nosgoth. It was because of his machinations through history that most of this had come about.

"Forget me Kain." He pleaded, desperately struggling against the tentacles that clung to him as if he had physical form. "He lied to me, lied to all of us! Sabre, the first Sarafan and myself. End it here. End it now!" A large limb slowly sank over the Time Streamers spirit and his essence was sucked back through it into the wheel. I heard his anguished scream of torment before it died away.

The silence was more chilling than the scream.

For the first time, I felt pity for the old man

"This is the end Scion of Balance." The Elder declared, withdrawing the tentacles back into the walls. "Nosgoth dies here. All three races will be extinct before the day is out."

"And what then?" I asked without looking up at the massive eye. "With no more souls to spin, to reincarnate, to feed off of again; your wheel will become still and you will starve."

"The death of so many will give me strength enough to leave, Kain." Was the reply, all the eyes around the chamber blinking shut and opening in unison. "When the Norse died out, I hadn't the energy necessary to move myself to another more hospitable continent. That was why I coerced them into creating the three races.

Now, with more than enough energy to sustain me I will travel out beyond Nosgoth's borders to other lands and continents, locate other species and races. Their souls with sustain me for all eternity while you are your kind become fossils in the rock."

"Then your own words prove me right." I snapped. "You are no god. You're the very personification of the word 'parasite'. You take and take, giving nothing back. You care nothing for the Wheel, the only reason you kept it going was because it fed you. But now that its inconvenient you opt to destroy it!."

"I am the incarnation of all life. All other forms are simply slumps of flesh that mimic my glory." All the eyes opened and stared directly at me. "I am the only life in this universe that matters!"

I stood there, silently fuming with the hilt of the Reaver tight in my grasp. Even with Baal's soul it was worthless against the Elder now. It could not destroy him.

My only hope now was to banish him, but without knowing his true name that was impossible.

But wait... what was it both Baal and Moebius had told me? To look deep… to listen? Listen to what?

Look deep to find what?

All I could hear in my head and feel deep within were the souls around me, their constant whispering driving me to distraction.

Suddenly, it all became clear.

The voices, the thousands flying through me head.

Listen to **_US_** not listen to **_ME_**: that had been Moebius' exact message. Even now I could hear his voice added back to the multitudes that were yelling at me.

Now I understood.

The voices I was hearing were within the Wheel of Fate itself, not the souls of those I had killed.

They were constantly being drained to feed the Elder's gigantic and horrid mass.

But from within that circle, they were effectively within the Elder himself. From there, they saw all his secrets and now… they were giving those secrets to me.

They had not been screaming their outrage.

They had been trying to tell me how to win.

Slowly, I turned to look at Raziel. He had worked that much out as well. He simply nodded and his transparent hand floated over mine, clutching the hilt of the Reaver just below my own grip.

"In binding locks, hell the prison, open and take the uttered convict." I began, slowly raising the sword high into the air. The roots of the pillars began to hum in response, each one emitting a different note.

"You can not banish me fools." The Elder hissed, several tentacles rising from the darkness and crossing through the air towards us. "You can not utter my holy name."

"Guilty of evil, guilty of malice. Guilty of hate." I carried on ignoring him and Raziel began the same verse in time with mine.

A steady glow began to surround the blade as both myself and Raziel held it aloft, the sword pointed directly up. The ground began shaking as the pillars suddenly started to turn less and less grey. "I invoke the binding, I invoke the Pillars, I invoke the judgement of banishment on…" We swung the sword down together to point directly at the giant central eye.

The tentacles were all around us, a massive sea of them, threatening to swarm over us in an instant.

The souls voices screeched on, hunger in anticipation for what I would say next. They were anxious, desperate to know if their message had been understood.

It had been.

"Banishment on the Kraken!"

"What?!!!" The Elder demanded in utter shock, hearing a mortal utter his true name for the first time in countless centuries.

Suddenly it was as if the Reaver was consumed by light. It was like a beacon, burning with so much illumination I had to look away, my wings coming up to shield my face. The pillars reacted in exactly the same way, each one suddenly glowing like a sun.

"The Pillars." The seer asked in awe staring out at the magnificent sight, holding up her arm to shield her eyes from the glare.

Those flying and charging towards the pillars had to stop or at least slow to watch as the nine white pillars of legend lanced up from the ground miles away to jab so high into the clouds they could not see the top.

The storm still thundered around them, its intensity threatening to rip Nosgoth asunder. But this visage, the pure stature of the Pillars restored was enough to make it seem minuscule.

Anyone who gazed upon this spectacle instantly was bathed in the power of spirit, the veil lifted from their sight, the purity spreading out into this world of corruption and the light began to return to that which had been in darkness for far too long.

Even as far away as Willendorf, people stopped away they were doing to simply stare at the beacon of light in the west. There was no where in Nosgoth the light was not seen.

"They're even more beautiful than I remember." Ewoden breathed, speaking over the Whisper. Sally just nodded once in agreement, her mouth agape in both awe and astonishment.

"What is going on sire?" Vorador asked. Janos was staring out at the pillars with an expression of renewed hope on his face.

"The final act." He replied. "Come, we must go to the pillars. Our time is now!"

When the light from the sword finally died down the elder looked back towards me, seeing that the sword in my grasp was outlined with a pure white glow and that the pillars began me corresponded.

"You blasphemers!" The elder cried; every tentacle arched up like a snake to come soured at me.

"This is the end." I announced, my wings spreading out wide. "And thus your wheel will shatter upon my sword."


	69. Boss 6: Elder God part 4

The Norse had wanted more than immortality.

They had wanted the removal of death as an aspect, to ensure that nothing died… that life would be perpetual and ever lasting in all organisms.

When they failed, their bodies degenerated and their race became almost extinct. Desperation driving them, they attempted to create a being that would artificially bind them back to the flow of life and death.

That being was codenamed K.R.A.K.E.N and by the later denizens of Nosgoth was known as the Elder God, the Oracle of the Ancient vampires.

Centuries later, that same being knew that here and now its hold on life and stranglehold on the flow of souls was about to come to an end and was doing everything in its power to prevent it.

Desperation driving its actions, it pushed hard on Nosgoth, vigorously attempting to drown the land beneath the waves and tear apart whatever was left.

Empowered by the souls of every single Balance Guardian, the Reaver blade cut through the mass of swirling tentacles it sent after me like a scythe through wheat. The slimly limbs were sent bleeding back into the shadows for as soon as they came into the light they were burned with the purifying fire that was spirit, the power of the soul.

"This is the end for you!" I told him and now my words were doing him more damage than my sword was. "Perhaps I am not fit to pass judgement but someone has to. No more Kraken, no more!"

"Insect!" The beast snarled, a massive tentacle with the width of several men came souring up out of the darkness below in an attempt to squash me.

Flying towards, I brought the Reaver across the limb and sliced through it sending the severed end flying off to crash into the wall.

I had the advantage in the power contained within my sword but the Elder could regenerate his tentacles almost instantly, providing him with a near impenetrable barrier of expendable limbs with which to keep me at bay. The longer this battle was dragged out the more damage was inflicted upon Nosgoth. This had to be ended here and now.

Racing to the pillars, Janos and the others who had won their elections encountered problems of their own.

As the pillars came within sight, dozens of giant slathering tentacles burst up through the ground to stop them. Purified by the blast of spirit that had come from the Pillars, all of them could now see the barrier that was in their way.

The veil had been lifted. There was no way for the Elder to hide its hideous body behind its honeyed words.

Janos was the first to react.

"Cut through them! We have to get to the Pillars!"

The clan chiefs responded almost instantly, ordering their archers to open fire; raining down dozens of arrows upon the slime covered limbs.

T'kral barked an order to his warrior of house Pyre and the Hylden summoned forth the elemental magic fire that was their house's trademark and sent torrents of flames forth.

Ewoden burst past the, his furry hands grasped around Havos and Malice as he became a whirl wind of blades, cutting his way in a savage attack that sent a torrent of green blood flying into the air.

Reverting back to human form, they called to them to follow him through the path he had cut but only Sally managed to fly through before the tentacles re-grew.

One large tentacle made a lunge at Dumah but coming to his aide, Malek cut through the limb with his sword before gesturing forth to send a lightning spell back in retaliation.

"Kain is struggling." Umah informed Vorador. "I can sense it."

"Then we must hurry." Vorador replied, clasping both hands together and unleashing a powerful bolt of energy that tore several tentacles apart allowing Janos and the Seer to dart through.

Hoping to incapacitate the monster, in the caverns below, I slice through several of the smaller eyes destroying them all; the eyeballs bursting open in a horrid spray of liquid.

It made little difference for the tentacles souring at me didn't slow down in the least. That giant eye, the Elder's main eye, its nexus point… if only he could get to that. The Elder however knew this as well and was not about to allow me anywhere close so it fired dozens of magical bolts at me, sparks of power that soured through the air like angry wasps.

Batting them aside I tried to sour in close but a small tentacle lashed out, grabbing me around the foot and tugged me down hard into the path of an oncoming far larger limb. The blow was hard for something that hadn't any bones, knocking me against the side of the chamber wall with a resonating crash.

"Why?!" The Elder screamed. "Why won't you just die?!!!" Dozens large tentacles flew at me in an attempt to break my body against the rock. Dissipating into mist I faded around the strike before becoming solid again.

"Because it's not any fun!"

Attempting a translocation spell I moved through space hoping to reappear right next to the giant eye. The Elder however had powers of his own and was able to move my destination, attempting to place me inside solid rock.

Only at the last second was I able to abort the teleport, arriving not at my intended destination but close enough to unleash a blast of raw magical energy directly at it. The Elder attempted to block it with some more tentacles but none got in the way in time and the blow struck his eye directly.

He screeched like some kind of wounded animal and his tentacles around him shook, trembling in pain.

This happened above as well, the barrier placed in the way shook as if caught in a seizure and Vorador and Malek were able to cut through it, allowing many of the others through.

Arriving in time, William came flying down out of the sky with Princess Alicia in his arms.

Eight of the nine guardians stood before the Pillars, each moving to pure white shaft that was their obligation.

Sensing this, the tentacles recovered somewhat and moved to stop them. The Hylden and other vampires moved to form a barrier of their own, their warriors fighting side by side to keep the slathering limbs away from the guardians.

"Ewoden?" Sally asked, looking at the Guardian of Nature. "Yes… I do."

He looked at her with an expression of incomprehension. She laughed at him.

"Yes I'll marry you, you idiot!"

Ewoden was suddenly more happy then he'd ever been in his entire life.

Reaching out laid his hands against the Pillar of Nature and Sally put her forehead against the Pillar of the mind. As they did so, their tokens for being Guardians appeared before them. They were rings, made of purest gold and inlaid with Silver.

Vorador placed his palm on the Pillar of Conflict and the token he received almost at once, manifesting before him, was a one handed war hammer. It was made from Obsidian and engraved with runes. A tassel made from fur was attached to the end of the handle, feathers of blood red tied into it.

Janos drew in a deep breath before he gently touched the Pillar of energy before him. A gauntlet made of brass for the right hand appeared before him, a large ruby in the top with a smaller set going down towards the end.

William snarled and his hand put itself on the Pillar of Dimension, not really relishing his task. Perhaps the Pillars had implied a sense of humour in the token they gave him, a crown fit for a king with a large mosaic mimicking a third eye directly in the middle.

Hylden seer smiled back at her brother before touching the Pillar of Time, receiving at her token a book in which all the deeds of the new history would be written; a large leather back tome with a buckle shaped seal across the front.

Alicia Ottmar looked aside to William. He returned her look and the two of them smiled at each before the princess placed her hand on the Pillar of States. Her token was a sword, as long as a claymore with a beautiful hilt inlaid with silver and a blade of steel that gleamed even in the thin light.

Umah was the last and reaffirming her alliance to me, the being who had taken her life, in her own mind she laid her hand on the Pillar of Death. The token she received was a cuirass, black armour with flowing strands of purple down the back made from satin.

The connection, that wonderful link they had all briefly experienced once before was reborn with tremendous force.

The symbiosis that all guardians shared with each other and the pillars.

I could feel their strength suddenly flow through me, a power unlike anything I had ever felt before.

Janos, trained by his thousand year wait, freely gave to me his endurance.

Ewoden's insight, his believe in the good in all peoples and race's was a greater source of strength than I had imagined.

Vorador's determination, his iron glad resolve to pursue a goal was enough to dramatically reinforce my own.

William's innocence left no room for doubt. He was not the Nemesis I feared him to be.

The Seer's cold mask was peeled away to revealed no emotional scared she actually was and through that, her strength her ability to preserver despite the pain to herself, flowing in, a gift she was giving to me without a moments hesitation.

Alicia Ottmar's own pain at the loss of her father was thrown aside so that she could give me her emotional strength.

Sally, despite her overall innocence, possessed a hidden mental strength she barley knew she had. This flowed from her to me.

And finally I accepted with the greatest amount of guilt, the gift of Umah's affection.

Her love.

All these traits when combined yielded strength I have never known possible. I felt like I could reach out and crush the moon between my fingers.

The Reaver blade sung as the sword came arching through the air one last time, its song a prequel of death.

My wings soared out wide I soured towards the Elder's largest eye, tentacles and bolts of magic thrown in my way to try and stop me.

But there was no stopping me.

Not now.

The Reaver destroyed anything that came close to me, tentacles dissolving and magic attacks vanishing without a trace and despite the Elder's best attempts I kept coming straight at him.

An unstoppable force that rivalled him in power, the weapon of his very worshippers turned on him; now used for its true purpose.

Destiny was rushing towards him; true destiny; not the fables he had strewn across history. A titanic tidal wave that was finally crashing down on top of him.

His tentacles swarmed to stop me and in that single moment I could see the utter terror and desperation in his eye.

There was fear.

I felt neither anger nor compassion.

Neither satisfaction nor pity.

I simply knew that this was something that had to be done.

"VAE VICTUS!" With an echoing crunching thud, the Elder screamed as the sword blade slammed deep into the eye spraying green puss in all directions.

"Woe to the Conquered!" Raziel stated in titanic reinforcement.

Sparks of bright light began lancing out from the inflicted wound, cracks like a spiders web spreading out from it across the surface of the eye. All the smaller eyes screamed and suddenly started exploding like over ripe berries, spraying out green blood as one by one they died.

The tentacles reaching for me convulsed before the cracks started spreading up them, beams of light escaping from holes large enough. The connection established, the Pillars glowed an intense white and became as bright as the sun itself.

Those around the pillars had to cover their eyes as the brightness was far too great to behold.

"NO!" The Elder cried but whatever he could do by now would have been utterly futile a gesture. The Pillars had already sealed his fate.

The sky above the Pillars rippled as if caught in the flux of intense heat. Slowly at first the gate opened, cracking open little by little before the rift had been carved completely. At the mere sight of it, the Hylden cried out in utter dismay and sank away screaming in fear.

Through the gate was the demon realm, that horrible dimension in which they had been bound so long.

"It's not for you." Janos told them, his eyes never leaving the sight for a moment.

The ground around them began to splitter and crack as the tentacles of the Elder were torn up out of the ground, sucked up by an intense wind; a current of air that was surging up and into the air.

"You can not do this to me!" The Elder declared even as bit by bit his body was torn up out of the chamber. Small explosions were ringing out across his bodies as every ounce of the Reaver's energy; elemental forces gathered long ago were forced down into it.

Through these cracks in his body, uncountable souls were escaping; thousands of betrayed Sarafan soldiers, massacres innocents' human and vampire alike and even the Hylden souls still defiantly fighting the god who had oppressed their kind for so long.

"YOU CAN'T!! YOU CAN'T!!!!!"

I kept applying the Reaver, forcing it deeper and deeper into the wound as he did, more and more of the Elder started destructing itself allowing for the release of more spirits. The cavern around them was crumbling, unable to hold its form without the Elder's body for support.

The stress too much, the sword began to splinter and crack; the metal on the verge of breaking.

Unexpectedly, Malek grabbed Vorador and held him close.

"Vorador please… I need to know…. How do I escape from this armour?" He demanded. "This is the moment, I know it!"

Vorador simply grinned and stepped aside, gesturing to the swirling vortex of freed souls that was now encircling the pillars above and below.

"Reincarnation my old friend." He stated. "It awaits all of us now… but you may go first. If that is indeed your wish."

It was impossible for a suit of armour to cry but Vorador knew that inside, the Paladin was weeping.

"Thank you." He said simply before dropping his sword and shield and leaping into the white vortex and disappearing. A moment later the armour emerged out the far side, collapsing in a tangled heap as the soul that animated it was now gone, freed and finally at peace.

With one final surge of strength, I pressed the sword in as far as it would go and the action broke the Reaver the legendary sword spraying apart with a tremendous explosion of light as the elemental energies within were discharged one final time.

The Reaver was gone.

I vanished in the light and Raziel's consciousness was flung from the sword and into the ether.

The event the Elder had feared for so long came to pass. The purifying energy of spirit discharged by the blades destruction soured through his system, forcing every soul he had greedily absorbed out of his body; freeing thousands from the Wheel of Fate and leaving him without the strength to resist as his huge and grotesque body was pulled out of the ground and sucked out of Nosgoth through the rift.

The action tore Nosgoth asunder as the giant was pulled out from underneath the earth.

Those before the pillars watched in awe as mile after mile of the cancer, the creature now known to them all as the Kraken, that had dwelt in this land long before their own respective species' was sucked out like poison drawn from a wound.

The events were nothing short of a miracle.

The waters all over Nosgoth began to receded, sinking back and ceasing their angry assault on the land. The tornados in the north shrunk before vanishing all together and the mountains in the east became quiet and ceased to shake.

The survivors of such a violent period gazed out in wonder and stunned awe as for the first time in centuries the sky above them turned blue and the grey clouds melted away; the sun shining through.

The ground beneath their feet, so lifeless since the Pillars collapse suddenly began adorn with life. Grass spread up fresh through the fields and plains, the trees of the forests suddenly starting growing leaves and fresh plant life suddenly just seemed to appear, spreading up out of the ground as if making up for lost time.

The stale air was blown away and replaced with a blast of fresh scented wind that left those it encountered breathless.

"I don't believe it…" The Captain of the Willendorf militia began, his sword dropping from his hand as the sight of the blue sky above. The Priest at his side dropped down to his knees and instantly clasped in hands together in prayer. Dozens of peasants and royal guardsmen did the same.

With one finally scream of anger and frustration, the Elder's foul body was drawn completely through the rift and it flew shut after it.

The pillars stopped glowing and all nine of them were left there for them all to behold, nine standing shafts of pure white marble; whole and now completely healed.


	70. Fin

The ether was pure white.

No sensation of touch, sound, or sight.

Freed from the Sword, Raziel's consciousness tumbled and flew through this void, desperately trying to find some sort of direction in which to travel but his journey seemed random.

He wasn't entirely sure how long he had been floating but it came to a stop when all of a sudden, he was flung from the pure white void and back into the world of colour.

His eyes snapped open and staring up, he found that he was staring at a stone ceiling. Feeling the sensations he realised that he had a body. Sitting up, he looked down at himself indeed with that he had lost more than once.

No more was he simply an essence bond to a weapon. Desperately he searched back through his memories, trying to recall what had happened.

It was painful to try. Strange as it was, Raziel could recall two separate events running alongside each other. He could remember being there with Kain fighting Sabre but at the same time he could recall being present at the meeting where the other clan chiefs and the princess had met to discuss the aftermath of the rebellion of Willendorf.

He held his hands out in front of him, seeing the familiar three fingers but with unblemished blue skin. Acting on impulse, he held a hand to his mouth and discovered that he did indeed have a jaw. He wasn't in the ghoulish body he had inhabited for so long before.

He coughed once and pulled the top of his pants open and peeked inside.

He grinned from ear to ear.

Suddenly he felt a brush of something soft up against his back and his froze. Slowly he reached back and felt a pair of wings protruding away from him. They were wings of the ancients, black with feathers rather than the bat like ones Kain had torn from him.

"But how…" He asked himself, swinging his feet over the edge of the bed he had been lying down in. "How did I..." It was about then that he noticed the chamber around him. A large rectangular room with fine satin drapes, chestnut furniture and a mirror at one end.

Slowly, as if afraid of what he might see, Raziel walked over to the mirror and saw his reflection. He almost stuttered at the sight of his former handsome face, restored to him. True the blue skin and wings were new but the face was all Raziel was focusing one.

For a brief moment he felt like crying. A very brief moment. One did not rule a clan breaking into waterworks when emotionally touched.

Suddenly he became away of the clan drape hanging on the wall next to his bed. It was his symbol, the curved jagged symbol of the Razielim.

Not only had his handsome face been restored… but his clan as well? Had everything that had been taken from him been given back?

The large doors leading into the chamber entered and a female vampire entered. It was obvious by her stagger that she was having trouble with the extra weight of the new wings and was attempting to rediscover her point of balance.

"Lord Raziel, good morning." She started towards me, dipping down low in a bow of respect. "Your breakfast will be ready in a few minutes. However a messenger from Willendorf has arrived and wishes to speak with you."

Raziel took a moment to regain some composure.

"Yes, very well, I will see him."

"Should I not invite him in instead?" The female asked.

"No, I feel some fresh air before breakfast." She would believe that but Raziel simply wanted to take a look for himself at the stronghold his clan was building here.

The memories from one half of his spilt recall informed him that after the Pillars had been restored, the Razielim had retreated to the western most mountains to carve out a settlement where they would have some level of independence.

All the clans had followed suite after Kain had not returned, although Queen Umah kept their ambitions in check.

Queen Umah… that would take some getting used to.

The mountain settlement of Raz-rafih was carved into solid rock, making it hard to attack and endurable to the elements. Mounted high above the town of Coorhagen it was a superb defensible spot.

Construction had only just started so the conditions were somewhat rugged for the most part but with persistence, it wouldn't take long to cultivate the place.

Raziel instinctively flinched when he stepped out into the sunlight, half expected to be reduced to ashes on the spot but instead he felt the warmth of the sun on his skin and the cold mountain air and felt…strangely…good.

The messenger that had come to meet him was a Seroli. Neither half of Raziel's recall knew what happened to them after the restoration of the pillars but he knew that a scant few of them had decided to remain in the employ of the royal Lion court rather than go off with Ewoden.

"My lord Raziel, I bring you the latest news from the south."

The messenger was too overly courteous and Raziel suspected he was angling for praise for having come so far out here.

"But first my lord." He held forth a scrolled tied up with fine red silk. "As you requested, the new map of Nosgoth."

It took Raziel a moment to remember but one half of his recall did inform him that he had ordered a map. The assault by the Elder God upon Nosgoth had devastated the land, redrawing the coastline dramatically and carving up whatever remained inland. As such, the old maps of Nosgoth were no longer valid.

Raziel took the scrolls and unravelled it, holding the ink drawing upon it up to the sunlight.

The tidal wave that had smashed against Nosgoth's southern coat had carved out several islands before making a large lake that almost cut the western side of Nosgoth off from the east.

The earthquake had created dozens of valleys and new jagged mountains sprouting up where grassy plains had once been.

Willendorf was of course marked as the human capital. Meridian was gone, or at least most of it underwater. Now that it was an aquatic necropolis it had been removed from the map.

Willendorf had been hit hard by the wave as well, a good deal of the city washed away leaving the only remaining piece being the stronghold fort on the island in the centre.

The other clan's cities, although still fledgling settlements like Raz-rafih, were marked as well.

Dumah had settled his clan in the east, just north of Willendorf. His city was marked as Bull's keep. Raziel couldn't help but chuckle. An apt name given its creator.

Ruhab, in something of a bizarre coincidence, had settled his clan on the now wide shore of the lake of tears. This was where he had settled during the years of Kain's empire, where the drowned Abbey had once been. His settlement was marked as Myrmidon.

Zephon had returned to Dark Eden, reclaimed the ruin, and renamed it Arcid. Little else was listed and Raziel suspected his clan had gone into isolationism, just as he had in Kain's empire.

Turel's clan had gone the furthest north eastern point in Nosgoth and along with William and Umah were building the first metropolis for the vampires, remaking the ruins of Stahlberg and the surrounding lands. So far this city was simply labelled Stahlberg after its human name but once completed, it would probably received a new name in a christening.

Melchiach was marked as taking out land for himself and his clan where the hamlet of Uschtenheim had once been. He had probably placed himself there to act as a buffer against the isolationist Zephonim in case Zephon got any ideas. The Zephonim clan leader had been the one most disturbed by the loss of immortality and had been almost erratic when he left the conclave.

Raziel barely even listened to the other news the messenger had to offer, such as the funeral of the King of Willendorf and the formal coronation of Queen Alicia Ottmar. There was a single location on the map that drew his eyes immediately. Surrounded by a natural moat were the Pillars of Nosgoth.

"Excuse me, please, I am afraid I must be going." He told the messenger. "Relay all matters of importance to my steward."

"My lord, where are you going?" The female who had accompanied him asked as Raziel spread his wings, drawing on the somewhat brief experience one half of his recall had about powered flight.

"I er… I have to be somewhere." That was the best excuse he could come up with before he soured into the air, beating his wings hard as he soured into the cloudless sky.

Somehow, he reasoned, when his essence had been released when the sword was destroyed he had gone to the only thing he could; the body of his former self. In affect, he had literally and paradoxically possessed himself.

That was why it was painful trying to use both halves of his memory at once; the paradox was something his mind could not get around.

But Kain? Where was Kain? The Scion of Balance had disappeared in that flash and Raziel could not sense him.

Flying south, Raziel tried to remember what had happened in that exact moment. When the Reaver had pieced the eye of the Elder, the strain of energies elemental, spiritual and physical, had been too much for the blade and the action of sealing the Elder away in the demon dimension had shattered the weapon.

The action had freed Raziel and the reforming of history meant that the purgatorial cycle which he had been doomed to was now void and inert.

This world, restored back to its former glory, was breathtaking to behold. Green grass rich with dew grew out across fields and parries, rolling over hills and jagged rocks. The trees were tall, their thick canopy's rich with colour and life. Birds…birds were actually in the air, chirping and singing and to some extent Raziel could understand their songs.

They sang of renewal, of new births and opportunity. Their chirpy optimism was infectious.

There was movement down below him and flying down to investigate, Raziel found a small collection of demons down on the shores of an unfamiliar lake, before the start of a small forest. There was a large fire demon and several lightning demons around and they appeared to be arguing.

Trees, reeds and other vegetation lined the banks; feeding off the water and growing stronger. The grass further inland was waist high and the flowers seemed to be three times their natural size.

Deer drank from the lake nearby, a whole herd of them at the waters edge less than a few feet away.

Starved of life for so long, the plants were absorbing so much energy they were having a tremendous growth spurt.

A range of mountains stood out against the horizon, but Raziel could not recognize them. He had no ideas where he was at this present moment the land was simply too different to recognize. But it was a joy to stare at.

He could feel the earth beneath his feet almost overflowing with energy after held back for so long; like a lake held back by a dam.

"Not good enough, still too unoriginal." Raziel heard the fire demon mutter as it sat down on the ground with a loud thud. "I'm not going to be able to sleep now until I think of something."

One of the lightning demons looked up, noticing Raziel.

"Ho vampire, is a strange thing to see one of your kind this far south." It greeted him, waving its pincers in the air with a friendly gesture. Raziel had never thought such behaviour would be possible in beings that originated from the demon dimension, where the rules of physics required one to go insane.

"I am on an errand." Raziel told them, dropping down to the ground and folding his wings. "Although what may I ask are beings such as yourselves doing out here in the middle of the countryside?"

"'Tis the only place we can go." Another lightning demon answered. "The east of Nosgoth, at least the wilderness, has little to no humans. We tend to frighten them and they chase us with swords and pitchforks. We think it best to avoid them until they get used to our presence."

"That might take a while." Raziel warned them.

"Indeed." A third demon muttered, rolling its golden eyeballs.

The large fire demons simply sat there, a hand against the side of its head as it looked thoughtful.

"May I ask what you are talking about here?" Raziel asked.

"We're trying to come up with a name for ourselves." One of the lightning demons replied. "We have our own unique names but never before have had we contemplated a name for our species."

"We dislike being called 'demons' by the other sentient beings." Another added. "So we think up a new name."

"Any no luck thus far?"

"None. We are new to this… thinking… method. Before we acted on instinct and anger. This new clarity is challenging to us."

The large demon grunted before looking up with a sudden sharpness in its pig like eyes.

"Beastial men!" He declared loudly. "I like that. New name. I am name maker!"

The lightning demons however did not seem enthusiastic.

"I'm afraid I do not know the lay of the land that well… at least not now." Raziel started. "Might I enquire which way it is to the Pillars of Nosgoth?"

One of the demons gestured off towards the south east.

"If you've not been to the coast after the flood then you'll find it on an island. It's being fortified, made into a defensible stronghold."

That rang quite a loud and familiar bell for Raziel.

Without even waiting for them to say anything else he took to the air, beating his wings as hard as he could to gain some speed.

Flying south he kept going until he saw it, a thin strike of white that stood to the south east; vertically from the ground to go up so far it was impossibly to see the top.

That was the only landmark Raziel needed to see. With a spread flap of both wings he sped through the air towards it, flying over the transformed land.

As he nearest, the white line became more and more distinct; growing thicker and bolder. Then that single line separated into nine separate ones. Raziel flew on and within the space of a few minutes he was at the base of the Pillars.

The Island marked as the location for the Pillars was indeed occupied and being fortified. The entire island was being made into an isolated fortress that was only accessible either from the terraces that allowed vampires to fly in or the port where boats and ships could dock.

"The sanctuary of the Clans." Raziel breathed, recognising the design of the fortress. All around the pillars this bastion was so much like the one he had left behind in Kain's ruined future that it was almost scary.

It had the massive iron doors and high battlements, with the clan banners hanging outside and Kain's own symbol; the one he had born on the banner he wore over his shoulder imprinted across the front of the door.

There were new additions however. The Lion of Willendorf was there as well, right next to the banner with the symbol of the Dumahim. Next along were banners bearing the symbols of the various Hylden houses, House Pyre, House Aqua, House Aer and House Terra.

Nine towers stood around the outside edge of the fortress, protected by battlements and each with a large terrace, the tops pointed and laid with tiles. Eight of them were the same size but the last one at the back behind the ever stretching pillars was wider and far taller.

"Lord Raziel. We have not expected your arrival." Several vampires bearing the crest of Clan Turelim stated, snapping to attention as he arrived on a beautifully engraved and decorated terrace.

"Had we had word of your coming we'd have prepared a reception for you." Another added.

"That is alright." Raziel told them, having no wish to be bogged down with bureaucracy at a time like this.

"Shall I inform the Guardian Vorador of your arrival?" The first asked.

So this was Vorador's doing was it? Raziel asked himself.

"No, I will go to him myself. I would like to have words with him in private."

Raziel was led through the sanctuary and he marvelled at the similarities between this version and the one he had been familiar with, so long ago now. By this sanctuary was not merely inhabited by vampires. There were Hylden here as well, many of them, along with a large collection of humans and even one or two demons.

As Raziel had expected Vorador was to be found in the centre of the stronghold, in a large courtyard there the base of the pillars was set. The pillars themselves, now once again pure and unyielding, stood there silently lancing up to piece the cloudless sky.

"Lord Raziel for you, your Guardianship." The escorting Turelim began and bowed as he exited, allowing Raziel and Vorador to be alone. They shut the door to the centre behind them.

"Ah my dear clan lord. What brings you to the Sanctuary this day? I was under the impression you were to stay in Raz-rafih to help your clan build its citadel." Vorador began, turning to face me.

It was hard to imagine him without his green skin and enlarged ears but there he was. The hair on his head was growing longer and the baldness he had endured was now disappearing. It made him look quite different.

Attached to his belt was his token he had received from the Pillar, the obsidian hammer that was a strange mixture in style of a hammer used in battle and a hammer used for armourer.

"Vorador, I… I am confused." Raziel admitted and the new Guardian of the Pillar of Conflict raised an eyebrow. "I was fighting with Kain… inside the Reaver Blade. He had just struck the Elder, the Kraken, the blow that finished him… but then… then I was cast out."

Vorador moved closer, inspecting him carefully, almost in the same fashion Kain had before he tore the wings from his back. Considering where he was, the enveloping sense of deja-vu was unnerving for Raziel.

"And when I stopped drifting I was in this body."

"You're the same one I saw outside the Shrine of Darkness… and then again at my old Mansion aren't you?" He asked.

Raziel nodded limply.

"I am Raziel."

Vorador absorbed the information, quietly pondering the intriguing development, before a smile spread over his lips.

"Then you have done what you set out to do. You have escaped the curse of being the spirit of the Reaver."

"But at a terrible cost." Raziel added. "Where is Kain? What happened to him?"

"Nobody knows." Vorador replied, gesturing off to the side where a shrine had been carved into the wall. Two angelic beings clasped hands overhead to form an archway and in the space below on a podium was a box.

The box was long and made of stone, with the engraved icon of the Reaver upon the lid. Raziel had seen a similar container in Janos' retreat.

"We saw the Elder torn from the ground and sucked into the rift into the demon dimension so we assumed Kain had won but when we came to the underground chamber, all we found were these."

He pushed the box open and within, laid on silk cushions were the fragments of the Reaver blade. The blade was completely shattered, the hilt in pieces and the skull that ha adorned it cracked right down the middle. It was like the outcome of the first between Kain and himself, when the paradox of the Reaver attempting to devour its own soul shattered it.

"It's an empty shell now. No more than a fragmented blade." Vorador said, closing the box. "But I will keep these fragments here."

"The Kain is dead?" Raziel asked, looking up towards the Pillar of Balance.

"If he was, I would know it." Vorador told him. "Whenever a Guardian dies, the pillars immediately select a replacement. There has been no replacement that we know of."

"Well if Kain is alive, why has he not returned?" Raziel walked up to the pillars and looked around them. Vorador had not placed a throne at the base of the pillars as Kain had done and had even left some grass and trees around the pillars whereas Kain had paved over completely in marble.

"He is one whose intentions are never always clear. Even when he was a fledgling, when I first knew him, Kain was passionate and somewhat erratic. He amused me, although his unpredictability made him somewhat difficult to rely on."

Raziel looked up towards the Pillar of Balance.

Kain had been his father, his master, his enemy and even his ally. Kain had been many things to him and what he had been to Raziel came full circle. Undeniably now Raziel could not look upon Kain as anything but a father.

And his sword…

Broken.

It looked…and even felt…inert. But somehow… now that Raziel was looking upon it with emotional eye it didn't look right. The pieces seemed…. Seemed wrong in some bizarre way.

Vorador sighed and turned back to the box containing the shards of the Reaver Blade. "Eons ago when I had forged this sword I had never expected it to be so important and so pivotal but still this new, lush world around us could not have been forged without it." He commented, draping a hand across the lid.

"It has given us all, every single person within Nosgoth, a second chance." Raziel added, remembering the brief time he had wielded the physical Reaver and how strong it had made him.

Vorador sighed.

"For eons to come people will talk about the sword and the role it had to play. Eventually those stories would become legend before people forgot about it altogether." He moved back towards the back of the square where a set of doors lead back into the fortress and Raziel imply followed him.

"It will take centuries but eventually the Soul Reaver would be forgotten, the memory of it fading away from the collective consciousness of even the vampires."

That, for some reason, made Raziel uneasy. The Reaver, the blade his existence had been so intertwined to was now simply a relic, destined to gather dust somewhere on display in this fortress.

"However, I'm not about to let that happen." Vorador commented and Raziel looked up in surprise. The Guardian of conflict glanced around to make sure they weren't being overheard.

"The shards placed inside the box are fake, a smashed replica of the sword I made myself."

Raziel sharply glanced back at the box in surprise. No wonder they had felt wrong to him. They were fake shards. Very good fake shards but fake nonetheless.

"I had to make people think that the sword would remain shattered for all eternity. If people knew the truth they'd be relic hunters after it from all over Nosgoth." Vorador explained, pulling the doors open to reveal a flight of stairs that lead up into the fortress itself.

"You mean the sword is…" Raziel started.

"Follow me." The guardian told him and ascended the stairs. Raziel paused for a brief moment before following.

The stairs lad up into one of the tower Raziel had seen from the air, which it turned out was Vorador's private rooms. The tower was entirely his, customized to his tastes with exquisite paintings laid out on the walls.

Raziel was quick to realise that these towers were meant to be residences for the guardians for there were nine in all, although the one intended for the guardian of the Pillar of Balance was obviously the largest.

In one of the doors was an alter, a large stone slab with heat being pumped up through it by a set of large presses.

Waiting for them there was another vampire although Raziel recognised this one immediately. Janos Audron, the newly appointed guardian of Energy.

Janos, like Vorador, was keeping his token close to him. On his right hand leading almost up to the elbow was the bronze gauntlet he had received.

"Vorador, this may not work. The magic's that first created the Reaver were galvanized by the first Circle of Nine. Recreate the physical shell I'm sure is possible but the…" Janos stopped when he noticed that Vorador had a guest.

"It's alright sire, I invited him here. He needs to see this as much as any of us."

"I thought we were to keep these secret." Janos asked sceptically. "And yet you invite a clan chieftain here?"

"I am more than a clan chieftain Janos." Raziel told him, walking directly up to him and looking the eldest vampire directly in the eye. "We have met before, for I raised you from the dead and then before … in your mountain aerie before the Sarafan found you."

Sudden shock came into the Guardian of Energy's eyes and he grabbed Raziel by the shoulders and stared directly at him.

"Raziel… is that you… the Raziel I know?"

"It is a long story." Raziel assured him, his tone implying he hadn't the patience for telling stories.

"With respect my sire, you did oversee the enchanting of the Reaver." Vorador continued. "Even if you didn't personally do the procedure you must know how it was done."

"Of course I know how it was done, but you forget it took the entire first circle to make that magic. Our circle is scattered and Kain himself is missing."

Raziel looked upon the alter and felt the heat coming from it. Lying there in an grove was the true remains of the Reaver.

Shattered like the fake Vorador had on display, it was placed with the pieces in the places where they had once been. Staring at these, Raziel felt something very familiar. It was a pull, a distinct feeling of wanting that compelled him to move closer towards the shattered blade step by step.

Janos and Vorador were still arguing and didn't notice Raziel as he walked right up to the sword and stared directly at the weapon.

It was the same compulsion to grasp the hilt he had felt before, when he had encountered the broken sword in William's chapel.

Knowing there was no danger of being consumed by the sword this time, Raziel reached on gently gripped the still intact hilt attached to the ivory pummel. There was a bright flash of white light and something, contained deep within Raziel, leapt to the surface. The power travelled down his arm and shot directly into the remains of the weapon.

In that instant Raziel realised that the elemental forces that the Reaver had contained had not dissipated when the weapon shattered. Instead they retreated deep within Raziel's own essence, hibernating until the opportunity came to return to their rightful vessel.

"Vorador, re-forge it." The clan leader stated. "Now!"

"Vorador, quickly!" Janos urged him and taking up his hammer, Vorador set to work at the forge. Pressing down on a foot pump the fires inside the stone furnace blazed and heat began pouring up through into the forge.

Despite the pain in his hand at the touch of the roasting hot metal, Raziel kept a tight hold as Vorador began pounding the fragments of the sword back together.

Working skilfully and employing the talents he had honed through years under Seroli tutelage Vorador's work was a marvel to watch. Raziel could only imagine what the Reaver's creation had been like, when Vorador had forged the sword from scratch.

Each and ever stroke of the hammer was almost deafeningly loud and rung like the sound of church bells. Those who dwelt in the Sanctuary all paused in their goings on to look up towards Vorador's tower as the hammering continued.

With one final stroke, elemental energies flowing around the entire chamber, Vorador finished and the Reaver's blade was restored. As soon as it was, the cracks and other compromised lines began to heal. The ivory skull began whole again and the hilt became as sturdy as every.

The work complete, Raziel let go and stumbled back; smoke rising from his blackened palm and for the first time he really felt the pain.

"It is done." Vorador stated as Janos quickly tended to Raziel's wound. "The sword is whole once more." It took a few minutes to cool the metal down but as soon as it was cool once more, Vorador gripped the blade and held it aloft.

"The weapon of our salvation." Janos commented once the burn was bandaged. "While the barriers between the worlds will hold the Kraken will never come onto this land again. But the possibility of his return does linger, for if the Hylden found a way back so can he. The Sword is the safeguard against it."

There was a knock at the door and quickly Vorador wrapped the blade in one of the sheets stacked against the side of the wall and hid it from view.

"Come in." He stated. The door opened and a young human boy entered. He had bright green eyes and straw blonde hair. He was dressed in simple clothes with the emblem of Turel's clan etched into a sash.

"Guardian Vorador; Guardian Ewoden and Lady Guardian Sally are here to see you." He announced with a short bow. "They say it's urgent."

"Very well Malek…I'll see them in a moment." Vorador replied. Raziel stared at the boy with wide eyes, unable to comprehend what he had just heard. Janos simply put a finger to his lips, telling Raziel not to say anything.

"As far as the boy knows, he's simply named after the paladin." Vorador said with a low voice once the boy had gone. "And its best to leave it that way.

With the Kraken gone, the Wheel of Fate now turns without him. We reincarnate after we die and Malek was the first one to do so. He…he deserved it."

Waiting for them at the base of the pillars were the Guardians of Nature and the Mind. Raziel reasoned that some time must have past until he had awoken in this body so Ewoden had grown a long ponytail that reached down to his waist.

"Anything?" Janos asked.

"We found him." Ewoden replied, looking up at the pillar of Balance. "Or at least we know where he was."

"That's not the same as finding him." Vorador stated irritably.

"True, but it's the best we're going to get I'm afraid." Sally remarked sadly and there was a sudden pregnant silence.

"Kain?" Raziel asked and Ewoden nodded once, walking up to the pillar of Balance and placing his hand against it.

"What happened?" Vorador asked.

"We reasoned that, in an attempt to escape the battle, Kain must have cast a spell upon himself to Translocate himself to another place." Sally explained, sitting down on the stone floor of the pillars. "Where he ended up depended upon what spell he cast and it took some divining… we had to bring in William to help us… but we discovered that he cast the spell known as Sanctuary."

"I know that spell." Janos said. "It returns a vampire to the soil of the grave where they turned from human to vampire. It only works with vampires not born naturally."

"But Kain was laid to rest in Zeigsturhl." Vorador muttered. "And that town's now underwater."

"Precisely." Ewoden told him, turning back to look at them. "At first we thought he'd drowned but then we met a Hylden fisherman who told us that he'd pulled a vampire from the water, half dead.

He was taken to a Hylden camp and looked after and as soon as he was strong enough to leave, he simply flew away."

"Well where did he go?"

"The next person to see him was a company of soldiers from Willendorf. They were patrolling the northern plains and saw him fly overhead, heading directly north towards the mountain range."

Raziel pondered for a moment. If Kain was indeed alive and well then why had he not returned?

"We tracked him to Stahlberg. He met with Umah, stayed for a single night, and then left again."

"A single ni…" Vorador started. "Ah I see. "He coughed once. "Why did she not tell us he visited."

"He told her not to." Sally replied. "But when we discovered part of his drape left behind, we made her talk."

"Ah long live the queen." Raziel found himself chuckling.

"He went south from there, directly to Willendorf and was seen by Queen Alicia. While he told her not to inform the rest of us about it, she told us everything.

Kain told her to marry William and form an alliance with the northern kingdom, he worried about something called the Nemesis or whatever that is.

And also, he informed her that a prince from each generation of the royal family should be trained in the art of swordsmanship. Should the Kraken ever return he is to take up the Reaver and defend his kingdom. Although what he meant by that I don't know. The Reaver was shattered."

Raziel cast a glance at Vorador. The Guardian of conflict sighed and then gently unfolded the sheet covered the weapon he was holding, revealing to them the re-forged sword.

"But… but how did he know he you were remaking it?" Sally asked, blinking in surprise.

"I don't suppose it matters." Ewoden remarked. "After seeing the queen, Kain went among the humans and bought a ship."

"A ship?" Janos repeated.

"A vessel called the Jormungandr. Kain even hired a crew, made up of humans, vampires and even a few Hylden and then sailed away."

"Where to?"

"Directly south."

"But there's nothing directly south but ocean."

"Exactly. Kain sailed directly south beyond the borders of the map." Ewoden reached into his animal skin armour and withdrew what looked like an envelope. "But before he left, somehow he knew we were tracking him and left the harbourmaster with this letter." He turned to face Raziel. "And it's addressed to you."

Raziel looked at it almost glum expression as it was past to him. His name was written on the front in a handwriting he recognised immediately.

He opened the envelope and removed a two page letter.

"My dear son." He started, reading aloud. "If all went as I hope it has, you will have been given back everything you lost. Your clan, your stronghold and even your handsome face.

Our fight is finally over. This is the future we both can live with, the ideal I spoke to you of so long ago now. Our lives are those of mortals but I think we can agree that we have lived long enough.

Our time must pass and a new generation must be born to take our place. To this end, I urge you to…" Raziel passed. "… to take a wife. I have given the same advice to all those I have visited before I leave. Queen Alicia will marry King William and the two kingdoms will become one. Umah will bear my own child and he shall be the king of the vampires.

The first and only child of Queen Alicia will be a girl and she will fall in love with my son and their line shall be our safeguard. Do not ponder how I know this.

As for me, my time in Nosgoth is over but my path does not end here.

In our journey we learned of the Norse parent race, which came to Nosgoth from a distant land. Indeed, Nosgoth is in part named after these first people. Their continent, according to what we saw in the Orrery lies to the south.

I seek to find this continent and explore it, to seek our whatever remains of the ancient civilisation there to answer the questions I feel still need answering.

And also, when the Kraken planned to leave Nosgoth he mentioned other lands and other sentient species. I wish to know how many there are. I wish to know precisely how diverse this world is before I die.

It is a large task but be rest assured that I will return to Nosgoth for I wish to see my son and the children of our allies and friends go up.

I know it is unfair of me to do so to one who had already endured so much but I must task you with several final obligations.

The first is to ensure that my clans do not fall apart into civil war with each other. Umah must be strong and bind them together. Please, make sure that she is.

Secondly, the Reaver blade. By now I am certain Vorador will have remade it. This is good. Take it to Willendorf and place it in the care of the queen. As I instructed her, which of the future line the sword deems worthy will wield it and if the Kraken ever returns; our champion will send it back.

Neither of us will live long enough to see that day but I have no doubt it will come and Nosgoth must be ready. Ensure this for me.

My dear son and loyal general. You have served me well throughout the many years and I have put you through much. Arguing that it was all necessary does not excuse me from the pain I caused you.

I hope that at some point, before we die, you are able to forgive me.

The Scion of Balance.

Kain."

--

* * *

Raziel did was he was asked. He took the Reaver, clad in the bandaged left hand and took to the skies; flying east. His heart was heavy and troubled. 

After about an hour, the sky cracked with a loud echo of thunder and it suddenly began to rain heavily. The pellets of water matted his wings making flight difficult but somehow he managed, flying on and on until the faint peeks of Willendorf were visible through the gloom.

The river and lake surrounding the fort on the island had indeed widened although much more than Raziel's map had indicated. Still the remaining people had made the best of it, building on whatever land remained on that single island; turning the massive fortress with the buildings overlapping; houses build on top of houses with turrets reaching high. Massive flood barriers were being constructed.

The earthquake that had shaken Nosgoth along with the tidal wave had pushed jagged chunks of rock up to enlarge the island but the new large was far too rocky for building. From the island itself it was now almost impossible to see the shore.

Someone must have seen him coming as when he drew close lanterns were lit upon one of the long battlements.

With the fierce winds whipping around the island it was hard to land but somehow he managed to get both feet onto the stone projection and waiting there to meet him were several soldiers in the white Lion Militia armour with soggy grey wool clocks clinging to them.

Raziel had had the sense to cover the Reaver with a clothe so that none might recognise it but there was no mistaking it for anything other than a weapon.

"The queen's been expecting you Lord Raziel." One of them told him, stepping forward with a respectfully thump across his chest-plate. "Please, follow me."

Raziel was lead through a set of doors and into the fort itself. The interior had been redecorated with drapes and banners bearing the sign of the lion of Willendorf rather than the icon of the Sarafan.

The throne room wasn't as refurbished and looked plain in comparison. Sitting on the throne at the far end of the chamber with a metallic chandelier holding candles above was the Queen.

Alicia Ottmar sat on her single throne with the sword token she had gained from the Pillar of States slid into a scabbard at her side.

"How remarkable. Kain was right, even about whom would come to present the sword to me." She remarked as Raziel strode into the throne room with the sword in hand. "That will be all." Her majesty told the escorting guards.

"M'lady… he is armed." One of the captains protested.

"I can see that Captain. That will be all."

"With respect your majesty I can hardly leave your royal personage alone with an armed…"

"I said that will be all. Lord Raziel and I have matters of state to discuss in private. Rest assured he will not drive his sword through my heart."

The guards reluctantly withdrew and closed the door to the throne room.

"Queen Alicia." Raziel started. "I come to you bearing…" He was silenced when the queen held a finger up to her lips and stood up.

"The walls have dry runs where spies like to hide." She told him, gesturing towards the walls on either side. Raziel cast them a glance and listened intently. The spies were very good at holding their breath but none of them could silence the beating of their heart, which Raziel's heightened sense of hearing could pick up.

"Come. We can speak more privately in my private study." She led him to a wall behind the throne revealing a door. It opened out into a set of stairs leading towards. Raziel had the peculiar sense of dejavu was he was lead once more up into a private room.

Unlike Vorador's forge this was luxuriously furnished with a large set of windows facing the island and with a great view of the water around it. Through the mist it was almost possible from this vantage to see the far shore.

"Kain made some very strange predictions while he was here." The queen told him. "She said that I would bare a Child by William, but of course that's not entirely surprising. I'm already pregnant."

Raziel looked her over in alarm.

She winked mischievously at him.

"Even William doesn't know yet. I've only just been getting morning sickness. Don't tell him now, I want to drop that anvil on him.

Kain told me that it will be my only child, a girl and that she is destined to be the bride of his son; born from the vampire queen of the north. He told me that from their line, each generation will bring forth a champion to wield the Reaver. These will be warders, each standing ready and poised should the Kraken ever return.

Until that day, the world is to think the Reaver destroyed, the fake on display at the Sanctuary and the real restored artefact here."

Raziel simply sighed and unveiled the sword, holding it forth hilt first. Alicia shook her head at the offer.

"It's not my place to hold it." She informed him. Instead she gestured off to the side towards a seemingly innocent looking wall. She pressed against a loose stone and the bookcase against it swung aside with the wall itself, revealing within to be a secret compartment. It was a shrine, an archway large enough to house an ivory statue.

The statue was that of Kain himself, engraved with artistic precision to mirror almost all of features of the real thing. The wings were spread with each feather delicately engraved and the hands held forth as if clenching around the hilt of a none existent sword.

"Why do I get the feeling that I will never set eyes upon the sword again?" Raziel asked out load as slowly he placed the legendary blade into the place where it would remain for years to come.

"Who is to say what tomorrow will bring?" Alicia asked, pausing for a moment to marvel at the statue holding the blade. "But what I do not understand is Kain's motives. If he felt that there were warders that were needed, why did he not stay and help train them? Vampires have life spans of over five hundred years. He could have made such a contribution."

Raziel was silent as he looked upon the sword with unblinking eyes and in that unique moment was afforded a great clarity.

Slowly a smile spread across his lips.

"He's already made a contribution." He stated and then turned to look out the window. The rain was beginning to let up and sunlight was peeking through the cloud cover, sunbeams lancing down from the sky to strike and highlight the land.

"After all, everything we see here is his legacy to us. A land, not restored but lifted. Nosgoth had been propelled beyond what it once was. The land is no so rich with life it's bursting at the seems.

A land where for once in our miserable blood soaked and stained history we might live in peace, as one and when he opens up the rest of the world for us then we will be ready to greet these new creatures; not with swords and axes but with open arms."

"Not everyone would agree with you on that point." Alicia reminded him. "There are still zealots here and there who want to kill off the Hylden and demons because they look different and the vampire clan of the Zephonim might be harbouring ambitions in Kain's absence."

"It's a risk we're all going to have to take." Raziel stated and walked right up to the window. "He gave us a second chance and we have to do everything we can to show that we're worthy of it.

This is the Legacy of Kain; a second chance."

Alicia followed his gaze out to the beautiful land outsidce the fort and widened her smile.

"But who will know what he did for us? Who will ever know it was Kain the Destroyer who restored Nosgoth, the bloodlust devil? None will know that he was the Scion of Balance. None will know it was he who battled the Kraken as these events fade into legend."

Raziel sighed contently for the first time in centuries and turned around to look once more at the statue, holding the legendary sword. It would remain there for many years to come, awaiting the next hand to wield it. Who would it be? Himself? One of the Willendorf line? Or maybe even the hand of Kain himself?

"And that is how it should be. I saw him change from a conqueror into a saviour and that saviour will simply fade away from memory. For Kain no longer wishes for global recognition. Simply to live his life and depart, to have contributed and known that he did good."

He reached forth and pressed the loose stone.

"After all, Shades cast no shadows." He added as the fake wall swung back into place.

---

Notes:

Oh finally! That was a really long story. Far longer than I meant it too :) thank you to all the reviewers who made it worth while. I think I could have handled the switching back and forth between characters a little better, especially with how Kain's was done in the first person but I was new to it. I hope it wasn't too difficult to follow. I may write another story someday, telling of the events after this but that might not be for a long time to gone. Should I? You decide. Either way, thanks for reading this far.


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